Olympian Bending
by Tzapporah
Summary: A strange spell cast at the Doors of Death sucks the main seven into a strange world where some of their powers seem almost normal, but not quite right.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note:** Well, here goes my first attempt at writing something decent. This is an idea that's been kicking around in my head for a while until one day I just decided to sit down and start writing. I hand-wrote six pages in a day. This prologue is the result of revising and editing the first two pages of that. This fic takes place approximately a month after the defeat of Firelord Ozai at the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and 5 days after the end of a fic that my friend wrote, referenced in my disclaimer. In the Percy Jackson Universe, it takes place right at the end of the _next_ book in the series (_House of Hades_) Yes, I'm speculating as to events that occur between the end of_ Mark of Athena_ and this point in my story, but it was the most logical place I could think of to get all of the main 7 from the series to cross dimensions.

**Lil' Line of Litiguous Lard**: I don't own any of the characters of the Avatar universe. They are the the creations of Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. Neither do I own anything from the Percy Jackson series, which is the creation of the great Rick Riordan. I also cannot claim credit for the plot that Jee is reminiscing about through a large portion of this prologue, that is the creation of my good friend Evilnor7 in her story, Forgotten Ones: Lieutenant Jee.

**Edit**: Noticed a few places where the story setting breaks were missing, now fixed

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Chapter 1: Prologue

The newly promoted Captain Jee was still working to familiarize himself with his new situation. The last few days had been…there was no other word for it…surreal. Less than a week ago, he'd been a prisoner and a traitor to the Fire Nation; the Lieutenant who'd evacuated his ship and the men on it from the North Pole as soon as he saw the moon go red and had then DARED to not even repent that decision. The Lieutenant who'd clearly sailed with the exiled Prince for too long to NOT be able to keep his mouth shut about how much of a moron Zhao had been, and worse, how much of an idiot the Firelord had been for listening to him. He allowed a small smile of satisfaction at that memory to pull at the corner of his mouth.

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"We can't give up now! We're too close."

"They're overwhelming us, and I'm not sure how much lo-," *THUNK*

"LEO!" *ROAR*

"He's unconscious. What are we going to do?"

"I don't know….But we'll think of something"

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A few days ago, the warden had come to Jee in order to get him "cleaned up" for his formal sentencing before the Firelord. The warden had failed to mention, however, that Ozai was no longer the Firelord. It took some gossipy barbers for him to become privy to _that_ particular snippet of information. Unfortunately, that source of information was quite lacking as well; the idiots knew all the rumors, but couldn't be bothered to even learn the _name_ of the new Firelord. He had been FURIOUS to learn that the Avatar had apparently installed one of his own companions in the position of Firelord rather than the Prince Zuko, whom Jee knew deserved the position. No matter how powerful the boy was, he couldn't just destroy an entire dynasty! Where did this…_usurper_ get off attempting to claim that title? His loyalty belonged to Prince Zuko and no other, and he had said as much at his hearing. The as-near-to-outright-laughter-as-she-ever-got from the gloomy-looking Fire Nation noble girl on one side of the Firelord; the small girl in Earth Nation colors on the other side's incredulous, "Get this. He's completely serious!"; the figure only seen in shadow through the curtains of his palanquin shaking in amusement made complete sense in hindsight, but they had pissed him off no end at the time.

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"FOR ROME!"

"FOR THE GODS!"

"How…."

"So…is this good or bad?"

"Well, they don't appear to be killing each other, so I'm going to say good for now."

"Works for me."

"No argument here."

*_Whinny_*

"Hey, no need to be pessimistic. He might be an asshole, but even he isn't narrow-minded enough to not see what's going on here."

*_nicker_*

"Good gods, where do you even _learn_ language like that?"

"Time and a place, man. Let's get back to the task at hand, O.K.?"

*SCREECH*

"Yeah, good call…let's do this!"

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When he'd been escorted to the Firelord's ship by the sadistic bastard of a warden, the Firelord had apparently gone off with the Avatar somewhere to pick a few people up. The noble girl, who was apparently the new Firelord's _girlfriend_ of all things, gave him the grand tour of the ship during which she realized that he believed Prince Zuko to be dead. She had not disabused him of that notion. She just let him seethe and build up his righteous anger until the Avatar and Firelord returned.

_Good Lord_, he thought, _I attacked the friggin' AVATAR with lethal intent._ Neither his surprise nor his joy could've been greater when Firelord Zuko, himself, had literally dropped down from above to break up the battle.

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"Do you feel that?"

"Yeah…what do you think Gaea's doing?"

"It's not Gaea."

"What?"

"It's Octavian. I can see him from here. It almost looks like he's casting a spell."

"Where in Hades would he possibly get a spell? Wait…scratch that…it's Octavian, and he's a conniving bastard."

"I don't care where he got it. I want to know what it's doing."

"Is it just me, or does the ground at the base of the Doors look like it's turning?"

"Um…definitely not just you, and not just at the base of the Doors. The stuff under us is moving, too."

"I can't get out of it!"

*TRUMPET**ROAR**SCREECH*

"It's like a whirlpool sucking us in. Looks like once it has you, you can't even fly out."

*SCREECH*

"I don't speak Eagle, but I'm gonna guess that was a cuss."

*NEIGH!*

"I didn't need a translation, much less an addition. Everyone hold on as best you can!."

"I'll do my best to keep Leo safe."

"DAMMNIT OCTAVIAN!"

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He had to admit, looking back on it, that it had been quite funny…and overwhelming. He was now a Captain, and specifically the Captain of the Firelord's own personal ship, and what a magnificent ship it was! Zuko had said that the rank did not matter to him, and he would promote Jee to whichever rank he preferred, but Jee had opted to stay Captain, at least for a while. Even so, he knew that the entire fiasco would be something he would be a long time living down. Mai seemed to always have a ghost of a smirk on her face whenever she glanced towards him and little Toph just laughed outright. The rest of the Avatar's cadre couldn't completely seem to decide between amusement and wariness, especially Katara, who was fiercely protective of him. He remembered her from a few encounters back when he'd traveled with the then-Exiled Fire Prince Zuko, and she'd not been the most accomplished bender in the world. However, the way he'd heard it since, she was the one who'd aided Zuko and had actually dealt the final blow to defeat Azula…during the comet, no less!

_Oh well,_ he thought, _time cures many ails. _

He looked up into the nearly clear sky, at the small….gray…swirling…growing…wait…WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?

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"ANNABETH! HOLD ON!"

"PIPER! I CAN'T GET TO YOU!"

"I'LL BE ALRIGHT! LOOK AFTER YOURSELF."

*SCREEECH!*

"I'LL BE FINE, FRANK! WORRY ABOUT YOURSELF! ARION AND I'LL LOOK AFTER LEO!"

*WHINNY*

"HAZEL!"

"WHAT DID I JUST SAY? JUST GO TOUGH SO THAT YOU CAN GET US OUT OF THIS!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH !"

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It was like a whirlpool was opening up in the sky. Some might scoff and say, "That'd be a tornado, moron," but tornadoes go down…this was going up. Plus, it was the only "cloud" in the sky. Then there was the fact that it was now grayish-red and moved more like a liquid than like air. Then, of course, there was the fact that it was growing...

It was only a few seconds before Jee's shock was overridden by his training to sound the alarm. However, the ship's lookout showed why he had that position and beat him to it.

"DANGER FROM ABOVE! POSSIBLE BENDER! ALL HANDS SECURE SHIP AND PREPARE TO DEFEND!"

Even under these circumstances, Jee couldn't stop a small surge of satisfaction at seeing how efficiently this small and fairly new crew executed their duties. He and Zuko had done well over the last day or two in gathering them. It was not long before he knew they had their tasks in hand and he returned his attention to the growing phenomenon overhead.

The door opened behind him, and soft, urgent, footfalls announced the arrival of Katara from belowdecks. He was glad that she hadn't gone with the others to drop their friends back off at Kiyoshi Island. He was no slouch in the bender ability department, but it was good to have backup. There is nothing quite like the confidence that a powerful waterbender gives you when you're at sea. In addition, he'd been told that she was an excellent healer.

"What is it?" she said, just a hint of trepidation in her voice.

He could only answer with a shrug.

Both had their attention riveted above, but Jee could see Katara fall into a defensive waterbending stance out of the corner of his eye. As powerful and accomplished as he'd been assured she was, he couldn't help wishing that the Firelord and Avatar hadn't gone on their detour. He frowned at the swirling funnel above him at that thought. An airbender would be a really handy thing right about now.

He shook himself. No use dwelling on what he _didn't_ have. The maelstrom was nearly 50 meters across now, but it seemed to have stabilized.

Katara tensed next to him. Cursing the damage prison nutrition and poor lighting had done to his eyesight, he strained to see what had alerted her. A few agonizing seconds later, he spotted them. There were several shapes, barely more than specks at the moment, swirling out from the center of the phenomenon. He counted about a dozen at first, but as he watched, some would get close to others and just disappear. After approximately 10 seconds, there only five figures left and they appeared to be getting closer. As they neared the event horizon of the funnel, he realized that they were people. Three were clearly individuals, one of the figures looked like two people holding onto each other closely, and the fifth and final one looked like someone astride a creature he'd never seen before with another person flopped over the pommel.

Everyone's attention was glued to the figures now. They watched in fascination as the first of the figures reached the edge of the circular boundary. It was as if they'd been shot out of a sling, and they were thrown about 200 meters in front of the ship. The other two individuals followed rapidly on similar trajectories, but slightly different angles from the first. The two astride and their mount were flung aft of the ship. The embracing duo was the last to reach the edge of the vortex. They were flung directly towards at the ship.

Katara demonstrated that her reflexes were still definitely battle-ready as along with her hand, a wall of water shot up to catch the flying figures. They were moving rapidly enough that she didn't quite manage to stop them. She was able slow them down enough that they didn't become a greasy dent on the deck, but they did reach the railing on the other side with a muted, head-first *CLANG*


	2. Chapter I (Katara POV)

**A/N**: With the notable exception of the prologue, I'm trying to write this story like Rick Riordan's later books, with the different third person limited POV for each chapter.

**Lil' Line o' Litiguous Lard**: I don't own any of the characters in this story, nor the setting. There aren't even OC's in this yet.

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**KATARA**

*CLANG*

Katara winced. "You, check on those two," she ordered as she simultaneously pulled on her waterbending power and sprinted for the edge of the ship, "and keep them stable until I get back." She vaulted the railing onto the cresting wave and surfed off towards the nearest of the other fallen figures. If the speed that those two had been going when they reached the ship were any indication, then the water wouldn't have felt all that soft and very well might have knocked them unconscious.

She was panicked to discover that her fears weren't unfounded upon reaching the first figure, face down in the water. She formed an ice floe underneath the girl, turned her over and waterbent the water out of her lungs, vaguely noticing that the girl had an appearance not dissimilar to a member of the Water Tribe.

Filing away the information for later, Katara sped off towards the site of the second impact, ice floe in tow. Here, at least, the boy was face-up. He was large, solid and, most importantly, breathing. She was a little surprised that he'd managed to not get _any_ water in his lungs, but wasn't about to complain. She created another floe under the boy and joined it with the one she already had, and sped towards the third figure.

This was another boy, face-up like the last, but looked like no one she had ever seen before. She only had enough time to take in his straw-colored hair before bending the small amount of water that had made its way into his lungs. She added him to her growing ice-gurney and went off in the direction of the final site. As she passed the ship, she deposited her current load on the deck as gently as she could while barely cutting her speed to the last spot. She noted with approval that the men aboard had been waiting and prepared for her return.

She was unable to see the final figures until she rounded the ship, but what she saw almost broke her concentration enough to send her head-first into the ocean. There, standing on the water, was the strangest-looking creature she'd ever seen. It had four legs that ended in hooves and a head not completely unlike an ostrich-horse, but with a soft, rounded nose rather than a beak. As if the fact that it was standing _on top of the water_ wasn't enough of a shock, it also had two bodies flopped over its back and was looking at her with a very intelligent and wary expression in its eyes.

"Um….can I take those two back to my ship over there? I'm a fairly decent healer and can see to their injuries…" Katara ventured tentatively. The creature didn't move. It just stood there, staring at her warily.

She crept a little closer; the creature's nostrils flared, but showed no sign of either moving away or attacking. She took that as a tacit agreement to approach. She edged her way towards the beast, picking up speed as she went. The two figures on its back were clearly unconscious. The girl looked as if she had actually been riding the monster, whereas the boy was flopped over on his belly crosswise, as if someone had lifted his already-limp body and thrown in across to transport him. It didn't take much of an inspection to see why they might have done so; the boy had clearly taken a nasty blow to the head.

Realizing that it was unlikely the creature would follow her back to the ship, she created another ice floe. The clearly-intelligent animal seemed to understand what she needed. It slowly knelt and helped her roll the two off of its back. Once it saw the two were secure, it whinnied and zoomed off across the surface of the water at an impossible speed. Katara stared after it for a few seconds…_where the hell is it going?_ She shook herself; worry about that later. There were injured people needing her help and she'd wasted enough time.

When she arrived back at the ship with her two final charges, she saw an ordered chaos on the deck of the ship. A quick survey showed her that this highly-competent crew had been ministering to the first five new arrivals, and it only took a few seconds for the two she brought with her to be integrated into the makeshift triage center. She saw the Captain beckoning her urgently over to one of the prone figures. The boy was not one of the ones she'd brought in from the ocean, so he must have been one of the two that had impacted the ship. There was no doubt in her mind as to why Jee had called her over. He had a deep gash in his side, as if he'd been sliced by a jagged version of one of Zuko's swords, and judging by the slightly gray-greenish tinge of the exposed flesh, the wielder probably had used a poisoned blade. There was no doubt in her mind as to why Jee had called her over.

Katara cursed under her breath and turned to order the nearest crewman to retrieve a tub of fresh water for her. The order died on her lips as she saw that someone, probably the Captain, had already anticipated her request. She allowed a little smile to come to her face at the efficiency of this crew. Any amount of time saved increased the injured boy's chances. Speaking of time, she prayed that she had not wasted too much of it dealing with that creature at the final crash site. _Please let me be able to save him_, she thought as she enveloped her hands and went to work.

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Just a few preemptive notes/responses. I had a friend look over this before I posted it, and she brought up a couple things that I'm going to address here.

1. Some of you may be familiar with the phenomenon called the "dead man's float" which causes bodies to float face-down. The operative word in this is "bodies." The phenomenon is caused by decomposition, so it does not hold true for unconscious people. Unconscious people can float either way.

2. Yes, it's odd that Frank has no water in his lungs. This is intentional and has to do with the abilities he got from his mom's side of the family. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to read Son of Neptune. Many things in this story won't make sense if you don't know either universe. I'm not going to waste more time than I have to rehashing the sources. If you have a specific question, feel free to ask and I may answer =P.

3. For those familiar with the Percy Jackson books who _haven't_already figured out who each of the crashing individuals are:

a) Annabeth and Percy are the ones that hit the ship.

b)Piper is who Katara picked up first. I had the commentary about her looking like a water tribe girl because Piper is a Native American and Water Tribe members were clearly patterned after Eskimos.

c) The second floater was Frank, who's Chinese features would allow him to fit in in either the Earth or Fire nations quite easily.

d) The third one was Jason, who's described as being blonde with blue eyes. Does anyone remember seeing _anyone_ in the Avatarverse with blonde hair? Nope, which is why he and Annabeth are going to stand out like sore thumbs.

e) The "strange creature" is Arion, child of Poseidon and the fastest creature on land and across water. He is a horse, and has befriended Hazel. As to why he shot off away from Katara, that is completely his nature. When we first met him in Son of Neptune, he'd been held captive by the Amazons for a while. He's a free spirit and not about to be captured again. He'll come when Hazel, or maybe Percy calls.

f) The two on Arion's back were Hazel and Leo. Leo was knocked out by a monster during the prologue. The reason the two are still on Arion's back is because NOONE falls off him if he doesn't want them to. The trio didn't actually hit the water, Arion was able to stop them from making impact. Hazel, however, was knocked out from flying debris in the portal.

Well, that's enough from me for now, Let's see those reviews!

Tzapporah


	3. Chapter II (Jee POV)

**A/N:** **Well, here's Chapter II. I actually had this written about a week ago, but I wanted, and was glad that I'd waited to have my friend Evilnor beta-read it for me. I hope that the length helps make up for the delay. **

**Lil' Line o' Litiguous Lard: I own nothing in here...except the idea of the story...and the swears that Jee utilizes.**

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**Captain Jee**

Jee and his crew had not been idle. Three crewmen reached the pair that had made such a resounding entrance onto the ship before Katara had even made it over the railing. They separated the two from their mutual death-grip and began cleaning the wound on the boy before Katara deposited the next three. By the time she returned with the final two, the deck was an efficient first-aid center, and a messenger hawk had been sent to alert the Firelord of the happenings on his ship. Jee had ordered the large tub of water brought up the instant he'd seen the boy's wound. Fresh water was usually a premium at sea, but the Firelord's personal vessel, with the Avatar and a very powerful waterbender on board, had no such handicap.

The injury on the boy who'd impacted the deck was extremely nasty. Jee might not know who these people were or how they had gotten there, but no one ever deserved an injury like that. The gaping hole and gray-greenish tinge made him fervently hope that Katara's skill was as great as he'd heard, or better. He observed for a few seconds after she returned and began her ministrations on the boy, but Jee knew that his hovering would most decidedly _not _make the process go faster, so he redirected his attention to other details. Observation was always a soldier's first weapon, after all.

_Sozin's embers, they're all children!_ It was true, not a single one of the seven wounded strangers looked old enough to join the Fire Navy. _Then again,_ he thought, _the same could be said of the Firelord and his friends. I know better than to underestimate someone based on their age._ After all, _that _particular group of adolescents reshaped the world in less than a year.

There were three girls and four boys; counting the one Katara was currently ministering to. All were covered with a myriad of minor cuts and bruises, as if they'd been in a battle just prior to landing in his crew's collective lap. The fact that most of them appeared to be armed in some way supported that idea.

The boy currently under Katara's care looked to be the oldest of the group, but that very well may have been the fact that his face had a deathly pale pallor to it from blood loss. Jee attempted to compensate for this while making his observations, and estimated the boy to be somewhere near Mai's age. He had black hair and pale skin, just like anyone one might find in every nation but the Water Tribe, but something about his appearance was slightly off. Jee couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something…different. About the face, maybe[E3] ? He filed the information away for later analysis. The boy's clothes were difficult to place, as well. His bright orange shirt was currently deeply darkened with his own blood, and most of his clothes were in tatters. _He looks like he's been living extremely rough for a few weeks at least_, Jee thought to himself.

A thought occurred to him, and he looked up at his crew. "Bring clean clothes for them from the stores," he ordered.

"Already did, sir."

Jee nodded and allowed himself a satisfied smile. _All those days of hard work to hand-pick my crew are starting to pay off_, he thought, then returned his attention to his observations of the newcomers.

The girl who'd arrived with the badly injured boy looked to be about his age and wore a similar orange shirt, similarly stained with his blood, and similarly tattered. The details that really caught his attention on her, however, were at either end. First of all, her long curly hair was the same kind of yellow color as straw. In his many years of service and travelling, he had never even _heard_ of someone with yellow hair. _Where could she have come from?_ He wondered. On the other end, her foot was wrapped in what Jee recognized as a makeshift splint. It was so filthy, Jee had not initially thought it all that odd. It was only when the crewman tending to her began to cut it off that Jee noticed the material it was made out of. Once the outer layer was removed, the underlying layers were shown to be yet another oddity.

The crewman in question noticed his commander's scrutiny. "Sir! The material is fully transparent, and extremely tough. It is almost as if someone made glass as tough as leather. Air pockets are built into the material. Only a few are still in tact, but they appear to once have been ubiquitous."

Jee gave a curt nod, and the crewman returned to his work with another "Sir!" _One more oddity to be added to the list. What in the name of Solizon's eternally scorched grave was going on here?_

A glint of metal a little farther up the girl's body caught his eye. One of his men had just relieved her of a wicked-looking bronze knife and showed it to his captain. Jee nodded to acknowledge that he'd seen it and the crewman brought it over to where some of the personal effects of the patients were already being placed. The only weapon currently over there was a bow with a quiver of arrows. _Good, _he thought,_ separating them from their weapons helps minimize the threat._

As he turned his attention to the next girl, Jee couldn't help thinking of Katara when he looked at her. She seemed to be about the same age and coloring, and the single over-the-shoulder braid that her hair was in screamed "Water Tribe" at him. Her clothing, however, served as a distinct counterpoint to this image. She, like the other two, wore a bright orange shirt, albeit in much better repair, a jacket that was a splotchy four-colored green, a pair of blue pants, and boots that almost looked military-issue. The crewmen were in the process of removing the waterlogged jacket, and one pulled a large bronze dagger out of one of the pockets. The crewman immediately got up to add it to the other collected weapons and/or unexplained accoutrements, which now included a strange article with multiple bulging pouches.

The next one was a large boy, maybe around Zuko's age, but he was not an easy read. His body was large and powerfully-built, not unlike a grown man's, but his face was soft and jowly like a baby's with black hair and the complexion that Jee often associated with citizens of the Earth Kingdom. His clothes were just as strange as the others, but this one's shirt was a bright purple instead of orange. Jee did not see any weaponry on him, but the evidence of scrape-marks inside the boy's left forearm led him to believe that this was the owner of the bow and arrows. It was during this inspection that he noticed something quite odd on the boy's _other_ forearm. It was a black tattoo, consisting of the image of two crossed spears with four blocky characters below them and a thick line below those. _Yet another oddity to add to the rapidly growing list._

The third boy had on a purple shirt like the last, and seem be around Zuko's age, like the last, but that was where the similarity ended. Where the other was almost comical in the juxtaposition of his face and body, the best word Jee could come up with to describe this one was "honed." Jee was strongly reminded of Firelord Zuko, and the state his constant conditioning from a young age had left him. The fact that this boy also had a scar on his face, although nowhere near as prominent as Zuko's, helped to cement the comparison. He, like the first girl, had the strange yellow hair color, although his was more like gold than straw. A motion from one of the crew tending him allowed Jee to see that he had a black tattoo on his forearm as well. The difference was that instead of crossed spears, his looked to be some kind of predatory bird, and he had twelve thick stripes as opposed to the other boy's single stripe. _Hmm…some sort of organization symbol, perhaps?_

The final boy could have been anywhere between young Toph's age and Katara's. Unlike the other boys, he was small and did not appear to be in the best physical shape. He sported a mop of curly brown hair and a complexion that implied he spent most of his time in the sun. His orange shirt looked to be stained with splotches of grease and oil, and upon closer inspection, Jee noticed that similar grime was encrusted under the child's fingernails. One of the crewmen was in the process of wrapping the boy's head in bandages due to the nasty-looking wound he'd received there. Someone had been none too gentle when knocking this boy out, assuming they _hadn't_ meant the blow to be fatal. _I wonder why someone was so desperate to put him down. The others seem to be a far greater threat._

"Was he armed?" Jee asked of the crewmen attending the boy.

"No, sir. The only odd thing he had on him was that belt with all of the pouches on it."

"Understood. Carry on." _Maybe he'd just been unlucky._

The final arrival, and last was definitely the youngest of the bunch. Jee found it highly unlikely she was older than Toph. This girl, however, was also the strangest of the group to Jee's eyes. As strange as the yellow hair had been on the two others, he could accept it because hair could always be dyed or bleached, but the same could not be said for skin. He had not known it was possible for someone to have a complexion as dark as hers, even in the Southern Water Tribe. It was like a rich mahogany, perfectly complemented by thick, black, and extremely curly hair. Her shirt was purple, and her right arm was emblazoned with one of those tattoos that he'd observed on the two boys. All three had the same four glyphs in the middle, but hers had an additional glyph that vaguely resembled a cross above, and a single stripe below.

_Three of them have those tattoos? Did I miss them on the others?_ Jee double-checked the other new arrivals, and found that he'd only missed one on the first boy, whose was almost identical to the girl's and the large boy's, but had a trident as the emblem on top. _So…four_, _and it almost looks military in nature. If it weren't for the first boy, I'd think that they corresponded to the purple shirts. Definitely very strange._

Jee made his way over to the crewman sorting and classifying the teens' personal effects. Two more weapons had been added to the collection; both of them appeared to be made of gold. One was an ordinarily-sized, if oddly-shaped longsword, while the other was a long, oversized beast of a thing. Jee could see how someone could carry it, but it would be rather awkward to wield hand-to-hand. Gold was also a very strange material to see used to make a weapon; it was just so soft, heavy, and _expensive_. These two weapons, however, looked as if they had not only seen battle, but served their users well in it.

"Report, crewman!" Jee commanded.

"Sir. For ease of identification, we have assigned numbers to each of the unidentifieds. Number 1 is the boy that the Lady Katara is currently aiding. He carried no weapons we were able to locate."

"Number 2 is the young woman who had been entangled with him. She carried a large bronze knife on her person." The crewman gestured to said implement on the cloth before him, and Jee nodded, having already observed this fact. "The condition of the knife indicates that it has been used in many battles." Judging by the girl's physical condition, Jee couldn't say he was surprised. "She also carried this pack on her back," the crewman indicated, "Inside we found a few rations and a strange rectangular slab with a triangle etched on it. The slab appears to split down the middle, however we have not yet found the method of separation. We have no idea what this might be, sir." Jee was clueless in that regard as well, but gestured for the officer to continue.

"Number 3 is the Water Tribe girl. She carried one dagger, also bronze. The condition on hers, however, implies that it has been used rarely, if at all, in actual combat." The crewman indicated the mirror-perfect surface of the implement. Jee nodded again, tacitly assimilating the report and indicating the crewman should move on.

"Number 4 is the large boy. He was found to have bow slung over his shoulder and a quiver attached to his back." Jee internally congratulated himself. So his powers of observation hadn't gotten as rusty as he feared. "The bow is nondescript, much like any bow the Fire Nation uses. The arrows, however, seem to be highly customized. I have so far successfully identified two kinds. The ones with the yellow fletching have tips made of gold. The ones with the green fletching appear to have a method of splitting once fired, although I cannot be certain of this. I have not yet been able to identify what any of the other do, but I believe it is safe to surmise that each color denotes a different type of specialty arrow." _Huh, so not even something as familiar as a bow is without mystery in this group._

"Number 5 is the golden-haired boy. He carried a sort of longsword, which appears to be made of gold, but is far harder and lighter than it should be if that was the case. The design and craftsmanship is unknown. This weapon also appears to have seen several battles."

"Number 6 is the small, dark boy. He carried no weapon we could find, and had this strange belt around his waist. It appears to have approximately 20 full pouches, but we are unable to find anything in them." Jee's eyes widened in surprise, _full, but they can't find anything inside…how does that work?_ "We do not understand the phenomenon as yet, sir. We will continue to examine the object." Another nod from the Captain indicated his acceptance and desire for the report on the seventh and final member of the group.

"Number 7 is the brown girl. She had one, overlarge sword strapped to her side, golden like Number 5's. Hers is a good handspan longer than his, however, and has a rounded tip." Jee took a quick look back at the girl. The sword must have come up past her waist! How in the Firelord's name did she _walk_ with it on, much less use it? "This weapon also appears to have seen several battles. Attendants also found this half-charred piece of wood wrapped protectively and stored under her shirt. No logical explanations have presented themselves at this time, sir."

"Thank you, crewman, make sure you take notes for an official report. Carry on." Outwardly, Jee was the calm and composed captain that he should be; inwardly he was frantically trying to apply logic to what was going on before him. _Seven teenagers fall out of the sky along with a large animal. I have no idea what happened to the animal, and Katara cannot afford the distraction of me asking. All seven of them have clearly come from battle, and one might not make it. All but two are armed with unknown weaponry, and one of the others has 20 pouches that are both full and empty at the same time. One has a pack with a strange slab of _something_ inside. Four look unlike _anyone_ I've ever even heard of before, and the Firelord is off with the Avatar and all of his friends except for the Lady Katara. Scorch it all to ash! He didn't even know why _she'd_ stayed behind._

It was all so strange. Far too strange for this world, and he'd served with General Iroh long enough to lead him to one conclusion. The Spirit World. Jee brightened a little at this thought. Relations between the Spirit World and our world fell under the Avatar's purview. _And he should be returning shortly._

As Jee looked to the horizon expectantly, a painful groan alerted him to the fact that one of the new arrivals was regaining consciousness. _Maybe I can get a few answers on my own._

* * *

**A few notes: It wasn't easy for me to come up with good fire-nation swears. In my mind, Solizon was the first Firelord. It makes sense to me that they would use distant firelords' names as part of the vernacular, but given the temperaments of Ozai and Azula, I don't think anything disrespectful of Sozin would've been used by this time. Anyone else notice how all of the known firelords have z's and/or o's and a's in their names?**

**So...I have a request! I'd love to get any suggestions on good fire nation expletives! PM me ones you want to see, if I like 'em, I'll use 'em.**

**Also, who do you think is waking up? I'm trying to decide between Frank and Hazel. PM me or vote in the poll which one you think it should be.**

**Edit: Btw, who wakes up first will also determine whose POV the next chapter's going to be.**

**EDIT: So...yeah, I made a few errors when I initially posted this. I apparently re-demoted Jee, and forgot about both Jason's scar and Frank's piece of Firewood that Hazel keeps safe. These errors have now been remedied.**

Also, REVIEW! Me like them. =P


	4. Chapter III (Hazel POV)

**A/N: Haha! I finally got an update out! Sorry about that guys, I had a vague idea of where I'd wanted to go with this chapter, but it took about 4 rewrites and a stroke of inspiration for the conclusion of the following one to get this down to any level of satisfaction. As you can see, Hazel waking up first got many more votes. More extensive A/N to follow at the end, for now, enjoy!**

**Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own absolutely none of this, just the idea of throwing them at each other.**

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Hazel

***THROB***

_Ow…_

***THROB***

_Five more minutes…_

***THROB***

_Fine, I'll get up…_

***THROB***

_What happened?_

***THROB***

_Did I dream that?_

*THROB*

Jumbled images flooded into her consciousness. A roaring army. Leo's limp and bleeding form thrown across Arion's back in front of her. A sea of orange and purple shirts with a skinny figure in black at their head. A whirlpool of earth forming beneath her feet. A resounding terror of being buried by Gaea again. Clinging onto Arion for dear life…then blackness.

***THROB***

_Thanks for the reminder…_

***THROB***

The black was turning to a reddish color. _Huh? I guess that's an improvement. Why does that color seem so familiar?_

***THROB***

_Oh, right…my eyes…I should probably…_

***THROB***

_…open them…_

* * *

Hazel groaned at the bright intrusion. She squinted blearily and uncomprehendingly at the source of the light. _The sun…so at least I'm not dead and/or buried._ A blurry form intruded into her field of vision. She concentrated and an Asian face with large muttonchops swam into focus. _Heh, haven't seen 'chops like those since I died the first time. Wait…Asian? If I didn't know any better I'd think Nico'd taken us on one of his less directed Shadow Travel trips._

"Who're you?" She said blearily, belatedly wondering if he even spoke English.

"I am Lieut—Captain Jee, and I could ask you the same question." He replied in a firm, but not unkindly tone of voice.

"Um…Hazel. Um…where am I?"

"You are aboard the _Roku's Legacy,_ the Firelord's personal vessel." He replied in the same even tone.

Adrenaline quickly tore through the last vestiges of her grogginess at the word "Fire". Her right hand reflexively shot towards where she kept Frank's piece of wood. Her heart seemed to stop dead when she found its familiar bulge absent.

Her panic must have been evident on her features, for the Captain's face softened. "It's alright," he said in a gentle and reassuring tone, "we mean you no harm. I understand your mistrust of the Fire Nation, but much has changed in the past month."

Her face slid from blank panic to wary confusion. _Fire _Nation_? Ok, I know a lot's changed since I was in school, but since when was there an entire nation named after fire? He could just be making a bunch of random stuff up, but to what end? _

Lucky for Hazel, the man had misinterpreted her reaction and continued to elaborate. "The war is over, miss. The Avatar defeated Firelord Ozai, and Firelord Zuko is ushering in a new era of peace and understanding. Don't worry; you have nothing to fear from us."

_Well I certainly find your obsession with fire worrying. But, _she admitted grudgingly, _I have yet to see anything threatening. Still, I'd be a sorry excuse for a legionnaire if I didn't stay alert, and right now, that means getting as much information about what is going on as possible. How should I go about doing that, though? Gods damn it; I'm no good at this. _THINK_, what would Annabeth say?_

"Um….huh?" _Masterfully said, Hazel. This was supposed to be what _Annabeth_ would say, not Percy! _

"Huh?" The Captain echoed back. Of all the responses he'd been expecting, clearly a complete lack of understanding had not been one of them.

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about. What war? What's 'The Avatar'? Who are…what was it…Fire-something Ozai and Fire-something Zuko?" The questions came out in a rush. _ Not a perfect recall, but it'll do. I've usually got a pretty good memory for unfamiliar names and terms, although I have a nagging feeling that I've heard that last name somewhere else. If Percy'd been in this conversation, he'd probably have butchered every other phrase_, she thought, fondly recalling his "Feast for Tuna" blunder upon his first night at Camp Jupiter.

There was a clang and a scandalized gasp as the female soldier to Hazel's left dropped the small bowl of water she'd been using to clean Hazel's minor wounds. The Captain did a much better job of hiding his astonishment, but his eyes widened a good deal. "That would be former Fire_lord_ Ozai and the current Fire_lord_ Zuko, miss. Where are you from that you had not heard of the war? What is the name of your village?"

"Well…I grew up in New Orleans, but then my Mom moved us to Seward, Alaska when I was eleven." She might as well be honest about the simple things. She knew she wasn't the best liar, and it was easier to keep track that way.

He looked thoughtful. "Hmm...I have not heard of either of these before. What nation were your villages in?"

She looked at him incredulously. "Well, I'd hardly call New Orleans a _village_, but both were in the United States of America."

"I…see." Hazel could almost see the gears turning in his head. She'd watched his face during the entire exchange, and it was clear New Orleans, Seward, Alaska, and even the damned U.S.A. were even more foreign to him as the names of those two Fire_lords_ had been to her.

An awkward silence had developed as the two processed what the other had said. Hazel was the first to break it. "Well, now that the pleasantries and general questions are done, I have a question of a more immediate nature. Namely: what happened to my things?"

"Your effects were removed from your person shortly after you came aboard. We find it best to be cautious when dealing with the unexpected, especially when the unexpected is armed."

Hazel was slightly confused for a second at that statement. _Armed? Oh, right, my _Spatha_'s missing, too. Wait…if he saw it as a weapon, he can't be a normal mortal. This situation just got a lot more potentially hazardous. _"That certainly makes good tactical sense. Would it be all right if I at least got my non-weaponry back?" She tried to make herself look as small and unthreatening as possible at this statement. "It just has a great deal of comfort value for me."

He looked at her for a long moment. "If I were to return these objects, would you agree to share some additional information about yourself and your companions? I would particularly like to know about the phenomenon that dropped the seven of you in my lap."

Hazel mulled over his proposition and returned his gaze. She could see nothing wrong with what he was asking. He had even worded it in such a way that she could easily conceal a great deal without breaching the agreement. "That seems a fair deal, sir, as long as you also answer some of my questions."

The Captain nodded his agreement and gestured to the young soldier to her right who had been tending to her cuts and bruises. The young man stood and walked towards a large Chinese-style pavilion to Hazel's left. She saw that a cloth had been laid out near the door, and on it she saw some very familiar glints of Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold, as well as the unmistakable bulk of Leo's magical toolbelt. _So now I know where they're keeping our weapons. No idea what I'm going to _do_ with that info yet, but it's a start._

The Captain's voice wrenched her out of her ruminations. "Do you feel well enough to stand, miss?" He asked, hand out.

"I…I think so." Hazel responded, accepting the proffered hand. Her throbbing head objected to the sudden elevation change, but she ruthlessly ignored it and instead focused on her surroundings. There were a good thirty soldiers bustling around with an air of efficiency. The similarity to the Twelfth Legion post-War Game was strong. _Everyone knows where they should be and what they should be doing. These people are experienced. _Whenever something works together as smoothly and steadily as this, however, it makes it far easier for an outsider to see what is out of place. In this case, the most glaring to Hazel was the figure in blue and white at the other end of the…platform?...walkway? from her. The figure's garb stood out in stark contrast to the greys and reds that abounded everywhere else. However, the deference that the soldiers around the figure were clearly showing told Hazel that the person probably did belong there.

She was pulled from her musings by the return of the young soldier with her fire-retardant underarm pouch, Frank's piece of wood, and a small handful of coins of assorted currency. "Here you are, miss."

"Thank you," Hazel replied, "Um…could you possibly give me a moment of privacy to put this on?" She gestured to the pouch.

The young soldier turned a deep red and stammered out an, "Of course, miss." Clearly he'd been there when it had been removed. He quickly picked up the large blanket that had, until recently, lain across her and averted his eyes as he held it up. The Captain only hesitated half a beat before turning as well. The female soldier, however, stood up and assisted Hazel in lifting her shirt and reattaching the pouch to her bra. "Alright, Captain, let's get started."

The Captain turned around with a faint smile on his face. "Well, miss, let's start with the names of your companions, seeing as how you've been so kind as to tell me yours."

"Seems reasonable enough, but I'll need to see who else…how did you put it?...'fell into your lap' along with me before I can be certain. Care to give me the tour?" She gave her best ingratiating smile and gestured in the general direction of the rest of the bustle.

* * *

**A/N:**** Before you ask, I do not usually plan to explicitly explain out details and backstory from either PJO or Avatar unless it makes sense for the character to need to do so. So, explicitly for this chapter, if you don't know why or can't figure out why fire would alarm Hazel and/or Frank, I'm not explaining it for you until the demigods have to explain it to the Avatar verse.**

**For those that ****_do_ know the details about the piece of wood, I added the flame-retardant underarm pouch because it made sense to me that by this time Hazel would've either come up with the idea herself or consulted with Leo.**

**__I am a little sorry about leaving you guys at this mini-cliffhanger. I have actually written the next part already, but I decided to wait a little bit to post it because while I was writing this, this felt like a very natural breakpoint. This totally didn't have anything to do with giving myself a buffer and keeping on the front page longer . ..**

**Now to respond to reviews! **

**Kittykrueger: Yeah, I was a bit amused that I saw your "please update soon" bit right before I was about to post that chapter. I had also said, when asking about Hazel or Frank, said that whichever one would be the POV for the next chapter.**

**Annabeth Jackson: I did say there was going to be more...although I'll admit that I was much later in delivering it than I expected. I am intending on leaving the suspense about Percy for at least a couple more chapters.**

**Sachmis: I had not planned on including Nico in this, since when I started writing it, Nico was definitely not my favorite character. It took the fic _Death God Alliance_ to really endear him to me, and now I kind of regret that decision, and have been coming up with a few ideas of actually getting him there. I did make a small reference to where he was at the beginning, let's see if you caught it. =D You'd better believe I'm going to be including Toph, she and Bumi are easily tied at the top of my list of favorite Avatar characters, and one reason I wanted to do this fic was the compare/contrast of the various demigods and the corresponding similar benders. I do like your swear suggestions, too. They were kind of similar to what I'd been thinking. I was kind of modeling the ones I'd come up with off of the _Dragonriders of Pern_ ones that refer to the first hatching.**

**Lilistar: Ice just doesn't feel right to me, and we never see any real reference to dieties in the Avatarverse, since while "Agni" in our world is the Hindu god of fire, "Agni kai" just translates as "fire duel" I want to keep the Avatar characters thinking spirit-world rather than Gods and Goddesses.**

**ScytheWielder: hehe, I'll admit that something slightly similar is the major thing that nigged at me to write this fic in the first place.**

**StrawTucker: Heh, you were the only one that wanted Frank to wake up first, well...besides me when I first posted. I think having it be Hazel worked out better for me, though. .**

**Everyone else: thanks for reading. I'm glad you guys like it, and I've not yet been intentionally evil about my cliffhangers...yet...*evil grin* The next update will be much quicker in coming.**

**MOAR REVIEWS!**


	5. Chapter IV (Hazel POV)

**A/N: Update! Have fun with this one, I've finally gotten some good ideas of where I want to go with this fic, and so I have thrown in *GASP* FORESHADOWING!**

**Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own none of this, just the crazy brain that wanted to throw them together.**

* * *

Hazel

"Care to give me the tour?"

A small smile graced the Captain's face. "Indeed, miss. I would be glad to escort you around this part of my ship."

The smile on Hazel's face froze. _Ship? How did I not notice this before? Now that I look carefully over the solid railings, I can see the expanse of water. Judging by the width of this deck, it must be absolutely_ MASSIVE_. Great. First a big, nasty battle at the Doors of Death. Then, our plan gets ruined when a Laistrygonian got in a lucky hit on Leo with a bronze fireball. Of course the fire didn't do anything to him, but the bronze whiffleball, when being thrown by a giant cannibal, was plenty. Then, Octavian with that whatever-it-was spell-thing he used to turn the ground into some nightmare combination of muskeg and a tornado. Then I wake up to find myself with a throbbing headache in an unfamiliar place with surrounded by members of what is clearly a fire-obsessed military organization. And to top it all off, I have to worry about my MERDIQUE SEASICKNESS!_

Her…displeasure must've shown through her façade. "Are you alright, miss?" The captain asked, warily.

Hazel gulped. "Yeah…I…I'm sorry. It's been a long day, and…well…I tend to…lose my…composure…when I'm on a boat." Hazel gave an apologetic grimace. "Let's just say that realizing where I was just felt like an extremely annoying topper to an all-around crappy day."

The Captain was apparently used to landlubbers and caught on to what she was talking about. "I see, maybe we should bring a bucket with us…just in case?" One corner of his mouth quirked up just the barest minimum.

"That sounds like a good idea. I'm not feeling the need right now, but better safe than sorry." She offered with a weak smile.

Without another word, he scooped up a nearby empty bucket by the handle with his left hand while graciously offering Hazel his right arm.

She accepted the balance help gratefully, knowing that the man's overtures and postures were at least partially calculated. The captain wasn't warm to her, but neither was he exactly unwelcoming. Wary might have been a better vocabulary term for him. Even so, she was surprised that he'd let himself be so hampered. _He must either be very confident in his crew to come to his aid in an emergency or an extremely competent fighter in his own right. _ She had little doubt that he was ready to spring into action if she showed the any real threat, and to a skilled brawler, a bucket could become lethal. _The third option, of course, is that he completely underestimates me because of my age, but my instincts are telling me that that is most definitely not the case._

The first of her companions that she saw was Leo. He was a bit pale under his brown Mexican complexion, and most of his curly mop of brown hair was covered by a bandage around his head, but apart from that, he looked as if he could just be sleeping. Still being wary of her new situation, she only shared Leo's first name, his age, and that he'd been hit in the head by a thrown rock. In return, she was told that his wound had looked worse than it was and it shouldn't take him more than a day or two to regain consciousness. She silently thanked the gods as she and her stoic escort moved on.

Frank, Jason, and Piper were all in pretty good shape, just wet. Judging by their salt-crusted hair, they'd floated in the water for a bit before being picked up. Considering their current state of unconsciousness, Hazel guessed they'd probably inhaled some water before they'd been picked up. All three were breathing steadily now, so she didn't let it bother her more than necessary. This time all she could give were names and ages. She quite honestly told the Captain that she didn't know what had happened to them.

The final two demigods were along the other side of the deck, and as she and the Captain made their turn, he pulled her up short with a few very pointed questions. "Before we move on, there are a few things I need to know that you have not yet answered. Namely: What was that thing that brought you here? Did you come through the Spirit World? and, finally What is the meaning of the tattoos on yours and some of your companions' arms?"

Hazel blinked. Initially, Hazel wondered why he'd brought this up _now. _Was he trying to stall her seeing Percy and Annabeth? It was a worrying notion. She was also a bit surprised at his final two questions. The first she'd been expecting, seeing as how he'd pretty much already asked them while they'd struck their bargain, and the third seemed odd that he'd be so interested, but it was the second that confused her the most. _Spirit World? Does he mean my father's realm? I'm sure I would've noticed_ that_!_She decided to answer what she could while trying to ponder what she couldn't. "I honestly don't know what that thing was. In fact, I'm not completely positive who or what was the cause of it." This was true. She couldn't be sure if it was Gaea or Octavian. Percy certainly had seemed to think so as it was opening beneath them, but where would he have gotten the ability to do such a thing?

"As to the tattoos, well...we're part of an...organization back home. It's sort of a family-thing, and the tattoos have three distinct parts. First, there's the initials of the motto _Senatus Populesque Romana, _or SPQR," she said while indicating the related areas of her own tattoo, "then there is the crest that denotes who our..." she paused for a moment to do a quick catalogue of her tattooed companions, "...father is." The Captain's eyebrows raised almost imperceptibly "And the stripes show how long we've been members." There! Not a single lie, but not the whole truth either...crud, now for the hard one.

"What do you mean 'Spirit World'? Do you mean the Land of the Dead? If so, it certainly didn't feel like that.

He gave her a long look. "No, I do not mean the Land of the Dead. I am referring to the realm of the Spirits, as in the Spirits of the Natural World."

Hazel's confused look must have convinced him that she had no idea about what he was talking. "Hmm...I guess we'll have to work that part out later. Let us move on with what we were doing."

Hazel nodded with some trepidation. There had been something almost ominous in the word 'later,' she was rudely knocked out of her ruminations, however, when she saw what was at the foot of the next bedroll. _That is a lot of blood soaked into that pile of clothes. Oh gods, whose is it?_ Her eyes traveled upward fearfully to see Annabeth lying serenely with only the normally-expected cuts and bruises. _Thank the gods, it's not hers, or if it is, these guys have amazing healing skills._ Something different happened in her and the Captain's exchange of information this time. This time it was _his_ turn to inform _her_ how her friend had come to be unconscious.

"Wait…she flew into that wall _head-first_?" Hazel wondered how that could possibly lead to less bandaging than what Leo had.

"Yes, although your final companion seems to have managed to shield her from the worst of it." His eyes wandered to the final bedroll, where the figure in blue Hazel had noticed before was kneeling. Up close, Hazel could see that it was a girl that reminded her of some of the Inuit tribes up in Alaska. Her gaze traveled down to the soft blue glow coming from the girl's hands. Hands enveloped in water. Hands positioned over a large gash. A large gash in PERCY'S SIDE!

"Oh Gods," she breathed, "no." Percy was paler than he'd been upon first sighting of Polybotes, the anti-Poseidon. He looked so sickly, weak, and—she could barely form the thought—still. _He looks like he's already halfway to Elysium._

"Katara is an excellent healer, if anyone can save him, she can." The Captain said in a reassuring tone.

The sound of her name caught the girl in question's attention and she looked up. "I'll definitely do my best, but I honestly don't know if I can. Whatever he was hit with had an incredibly nasty poison on it, and I've been doing all I can just to clean it out. It's acting like an acid, but one that only affects him. It's almost as if the stuff has a mind of its own and _wants_ to attack and destroy him specifically. It's strange . . . I don't know what else I can do."

The "destroy" caught Hazel's attention, and she suppressed her revulsion and examined the wound more closely. She was sure she'd seen that gray-greenish color before…but where? _Arrghh! I'm useless! I see my friend helpless, even more helpless than when we were hiding from Polybotes, and I can't do a damn thing. Merde, at least that had been a one-time thing. During the Battle of Camp Jupiter, Percy'd barely even flinched when the confronting the giant, even though the creature had already demonstrated the multitude of poison-related abilities. Wait…poison…particularly lethal to Percy…THAT'S IT!_ Hazel gasped with excitement at her sudden idea.

"Get him into the ocean!" She blurted out, excitedly.

Her exclamation was met with a shocked silence and stunned stares. She had to explain herself quickly without giving away too many of Percy's secrets. "My friend has what you could call an … affinity for seawater , and if I'm right about what type of poison that is, submerging him in it could be the only way to save him."

The girl—Katara, as she remembered—gave her a look that clearly showed she had at least a thousand questions, but all she said was, "Are you sure?"

"Not completely, but is there another choice?" Hazel responded.

Katara nodded and waved her hand towards the water. Hazel's eyes grew to the size of saucers as she saw the water rise at this girl's will. _How in the name of my father can she do that? Is she Percy's half-sister? If she is, is her father Neptune or Poseidon? Percy is going to completely flip when he wakes up._ All of this ran through her head as she watched the water scoop both Percy and the girl up and gently carry them overboard. She moved the railing and watched as Katara lowered her charge into the water next to her. She was only dimly aware of at least a half-a-dozen others joining her at the railing and watching the pair with bated breath.

_Please let this work…Percy, we need you._

* * *

**A/N: Yep, here's my first intentionally evil cliffhanger. Mwahahaha! Just so you know, as far as I can remember, Hazel has never been explicitly told that being in water heals Percy. She does know that he gains strength from it, but only vaguely suspects the healing thing. She will explain the rest of her reasoning in a subsequent chapter. Let's see how many of you can figure out the whole thing.**

**Next chapter's going back to an Avatarverse POV.**

**Did anyone get the foreshadowing? I'll leave you with a hint, It's a _very_ subtle reference to something _in_ the PJO canon.**

**Holy crap! I'm over 10k words, and I'm just barely getting started. **

**Notes to Reviewers:**

**StrawTucker: D'aww, you're making me blush =P. I also like to set things after canon's already happened. I might, at one point, try to align to a canon, but...yeah, I don't like corrupting the original like that. I love others who do, but I don't trust myself to do so. Besides, if I set things after what's already happened, I can reference everything else. **

**SubCeo: Hehehe, yes, Death God Alliance and the subsequent fics are awesome, I'm totally looking forward to the next one of the set.**

**Tzapporah signing off!**

***editing note: grr...someone had mentioned it before, but connected to the wrong chapter...Justin now correctly changed to Jason *bangs head against wall***


	6. Chapter V (Katara POV)

**A/N: Sorry about taking so long on the update. This chapter has not been easy. I originally was going to do this from Zuko's P.O.V...but about three false starts showed me that I couldn't think of how to make that work.**

**Just so you guys know, I'm a teacher. I'm trying my best to have some semi-regular updates, but they're generally going to come when I know how I want to continue the story...and have time to write them. I'll admit that having a readership is a new and heady thing to me, so I'll do my best not to disappoint.**

**Fair warning, I didn't send this one to my beta reader ahead of time, so if you notice a mistake, PM me to let me know. =/**

**Anyway, in the immortal words of Monty Python, _Get on with it!_**

**Lil Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own none of these characters, only the demented brain that decided to bring them together in this way. If that weren't the case, I would have a lot more money.**

* * *

Chapter V (Katara POV)

Katara couldn't believe she was doing this. _This guy has a deep, poisoned gash in his side, and I'm submerging him in ocean water. Even if he doesn't get an infection, he's weak enough that the sheer shock of the salt water making contact with his wound might just kill him. Why in the name of the Moon Spirit did I agree to this again? Right…it's because 20 minutes of me working on him did absolutely no good, and almost seemed to help _spread_ the poison. I still have no idea how he's even in as good a shape as he is. Somehow, even with that unmistakably-fatal wound, he'd been stable that whole time. It was as if something _else_ was sustaining him. I doubt I would've agreed to this part of it if that hadn't been the case…now I just hope this works._

Katara didn't miss the shocked look on the dark-skinned girl's face as she waterbent the ocean water to gently carry herself and the wounded boy over the side of the ship, but she had more important things to worry about at the moment.

Katara cautiously lowered the boy into the water, being careful to minimize the shock to his system by gradually letting the salt water cover the wound. She was unprepared, however, for what happened next. As soon as his wound was halfway under the water, the boy convulsed, arching his back in agony. Katara nearly had a heart attack at the sudden, violent reaction and nearly had a second one when she found she was unable to waterbend him back out of the water. In fact, she couldn't even _touch_ the water around him; a particularly worrying development, since his head was now under water and she could do nothing about it.

"PERCY!" came the agonized scream from above. She looked helplessly up at the horror- and panic-filled dark girl's face. Clearly this was _not_ the reaction that she'd expected when she'd come forward with her theory about her "friend." Either that or she was an exceptional actress. A quick transformation of the girl's expression to surprise and hope effectively redirected Katara's attention to her charge.

His body was still bent backwards, and now only the very tip of his belly was above water, but it did not take long for Katara to see what the girl had looked so hopeful about. At first, Katara couldn't be sure if what she was seeing was really real or a trick of the refraction through the water. The ocean water was doing on its own exactly what she'd been trying to do on deck. It was effectively sucking all of the poison out of the boy, but even more surprising was that it wasn't taking any blood along with it. Not only that, but the water seemed to be actively _destroying _the stuff, rather than diffusing as she was accustomed to seeing. Even through the distortion of the water, she could see the boy's flesh taking on a much healthier color. As if that weren't enough, his flesh began to knit back together right before her eyes. Katara was completely dumbstruck by what she was seeing.

The same could not be said about the dark girl up on the deck, who let out a triumphant whoop when the wound was halfway closed. Katara was broken out of her stupor a few seconds later, when the now fully-healed boy kicked out and dove downward. Katara, already worried about how long the boy's head had been underwater, instinctively tried to waterbend him back. Given what had happened when he'd submerged, Katara half expected her waterbending to have no effect and was pleasantly surprised to experience a different sensation.

Katara had been in battles against other waterbenders before, and knew what it felt like to be in a contest of bending wills, although not since her early days with Master Pakku had she been so solidly on the losing end of one. The water tug-of-war only lasted a few seconds before the boy on the other end suddenly let go, causing a backlash of water that hit Katara full-on in the face and, judging by the cries of surprise from the spectators, splattered part of the deck as well. Katara was barely ready for the follow-up wave, but her reflexes took over, allowing her to split and redirect it. Five more waves came in rapid succession from other angles, to which she gave the same treatment. _Ugh, where _is_ he? There's no way he could be moving around that fast. I can't retaliate if I don't know _where _to attack. This guy's waterbending is frighteningly powerful, probably more powerful than Aang! And how has he not drowned yet? His head has been underwater for a good five minutes now, and I'm almost sure he hasn't made a bubble around himself._

A lull in the action allowed Katara to process that the girl above had been screaming out the entire time, desperately yelling for the boy to stop. Apparently the boy heard as well, because his head finally popped above water some fifty yards to Katara's right. He was looking up at the girl on deck with a confused expression on his face.

"Hazel? What in Hades is going on?"

"Um…I'm not completely sure, but as far as I can tell, they're trying to _help_ us. In fact, that girl there was trying to heal you…Kelp Head." She said the last part with a smirk.

Strangely enough, that final comment more than anything seemed to convince the boy of the truth of the situation. His expression went from suspicious to sheepish as he turned and made his way over to Katara. "Um…sorry about the misunderstanding. I guess I overreacted."

Katara couldn't restrain her response. "Ya think? That was a crazy display of power that could've done serious damage to the ship! What possible reason would you have to react that way!?"

"Hey! I'll have you know that the last thing I remember is being in the middle of a fight for my life, then I wake up in more pain than I've ever experienced, which is saying something, and I can't move. Then, as soon as I _can_ move, I feel something trying to pull me back with the water, so I went into combat-mode. SO SUE ME!"

"Hey guys, as amusing as it is to see Percy make an ass out of himself, how about you come up here and continue this conversation a bit more calmly." The last statement came from a male voice that Katara didn't recognize up on deck. She turned her head to see that the large Earth Kingdom boy, the Water-Tribe girl, and the yellow-haired boy had all regained consciousness and come to join their dark companion on the railing. Judging by the sarcastic smirk on his scarred face, it was the yellow-haired one that had spoken. Both he and the water tribe girl seemed very amused by the entire situation. The dark girl and Earth Kingdom boy were too busy sharing a bone-crushing hug.

The ass in question, Percy he seemed to be called, replied with, "Laugh it up, Sparknotes." He then turned to Katara and gestured towards the ship, "Shall we?"

Katara couldn't help the sense of familiarity that exchange evoked. _ Wow…it's almost like Aang and Zuko…or me and Toph._ In reply to Percy, however, she merely nodded and gestured to bend the water under their feet to gently rise and deposit them on the deck. Percy looked at her with mild surprise and open curiosity as he felt the water move under him.

"How…how are you able to do that?" He asked, cautiously.

It was Katara's turn to be surprised, "I'm a Waterbender like you. How else?"

"A what? How in Hades could anyone 'bend' water? It's a liquid." He paused as a thought occurred to him and he cautiously asked. "Um…who're your parents?"

The question took Katara by surprise and her concentration wavered, as did her rising water-platform. "Woah," said Percy, and the water instantly leveled out without any sort of gesture or movement on his part.

"Ok. My turn. How did _you_ do that? How did you waterbend without moving?"

The boy didn't answer, but ran his fingers through his hair distractedly. As the water deposited them on the deck, he lamely followed up with, "It's just what I do?"

"Eloquent as always, Seaweed Brain," a weak voice said from behind Katara. She spun around to see the yellow-haired girl sitting up and looking at Percy with a weak smile on her face.

"Annabeth!" He exclaimed and began to run towards her.

It was then, with his ever-perfect timing that Zuko made his grand entrance, dropping down from Appa between them. "What is going on on my ship?"

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**A/N: Haha! Another chapter done! And just so you guys know, your reviews don't go unnoticed. In fact, there've been a few reviews that inspired me and gave me ideas on how to continue. Keep 'em rolling in!**

**Well, SpiritGaurdian, I won't deny that you're one of the ones that gave me a bit of an idea. I didn't want that awesome ship to be destroyed, though. **

**Hope you guys like the nickname that Percy threw at Jason there. It just sort of came naturally in the course of typing.**

**Keep those reviews rolling in! I crave the vindication! Until next time, guys! Hopefully I'll have another for you before Christmas.**


	7. Chapter VI (Annabeth POV)

**A/N: Hah! I did it, I got it in before Christmas...just barely. Yeah, sorry, this one had another few false starts, plus a crazy week at school. Then we get to add in the fact that I got sick on Saturday which led to me using almost the entire day to sleep through it. Then Sunday was a frenzy of cleaning and packing for my flight to visit my folks. A chunk of this got written in the airport and on the airplane. The final, and probably the most frustrating delay was this evening. My parents insisted on forcing me to watch pieces (translation, far more than I wanted to watch) of their community theater's Christmas show...which included a positively Nightmare-fuel donkey and Rudolph and a gingerbread man dancing Gangnam Style...yeah...couldn't concentrate real well there...**

**Anyway. Enough with my rambling, on to the story!**

**Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own nothing! I wish I did and had the money for it, but alas, I do not. I only own the demented mind that decided to throw these two worlds together.**

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Annabeth

"What is going on on my ship!?"

To say that Annabeth was surprised by this sudden arrival would've been an understatement. It wasn't all that often, even in the lives of demigods, that someone simply dropped out of the sky. She glanced quickly upwards to see where he came from and ran into yet another surprise. An enormous white, brown and gray shaggy beast was hovering above them. Two more people were in the process of climbing out of what looked suspiciously like a saddle and sliding down one of its six legs to drop themselves down onto the deck. In all of her study, she'd never even heard of a beast similar to the behemoth she currently saw above her, but her demigod senses didn't allow her to be riveted for too long, as she caught the approach of another person, who was, for lack of a better word, gliding in from a different angle, making a beeline for the blue-clad girl that Percy had been arguing with. _Is…is he riding on a kite?_

Not allowing herself to be distracted for too long, she returned her attention to Percy, who she saw was also rapidly returning his gaze to the person in front of him. Annabeth noted that Percy was poised for battle with a glint of bronze indicating that he had Riptide in his hand, but had not yet uncapped it. Considering what they had both been through in the last month, and what he'd been through the weeks before that, that particular fact surprised her. She took a quick glance around and quickly saw his reasoning, though. Of their band of seven, Percy was the only one that hadn't been disarmed out of the five she could see and herself. This led to another worrying thought. _Where's Leo? Is he alright?_

At this point, the gliding person, a bald boy that was probably about Hazel's age, landed next to the blue-clad girl and asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, just a little wet. How about we just dry ourselves off and put this misunderstanding behind us?" The last she said in an overwhelming tone of hopeful optimism while turning towards Percy, apparently ignoring the angry man clad in red and gold standing between them.

Clearly, this wasn't enough of an explanation for the others. "WHAT? A MISUNDERSTANDING?" yelled the angry man, the flying bald boy, and the dark-skinned blue-clad boy who'd just joined them from the flying shaggy thing above. "From what we could see, that 'little misunderstanding' nearly capsized the boat!" The last part tagged on by the last of the three.

"Look, I'll explain later, ok? Right now I just want to get dry."

Percy's eyes had been flickering between the three during the entire discussion. "Um…Question." All eyes turned to him as his eyes looked straight at the girl with confusion. "Why would you need to 'dry off'? Why did you let yourself get wet in the first place?"

"Um…because we were both just in the ocean? Of course we're…" She trailed off; clearly she'd only just notice that Percy was perfectly dry. Annabeth couldn't help the proud smirk that came to her face. Children of Poseidon only got wet when they wanted to. "How are…? Did you waterbend yourself dry when I wasn't looking?"

"Did I who with the what now? I was never wet to begin with." replied Percy with genuine confusion.

The as-of-yet ignored red-and-gold man had had enough at this point. "When I got here, you were lunging towards and about to attack my friend here. Am I supposed to believe that _that_ was a 'misunderstanding' too?"

Percy's face morphed from confused, through offended, gave way to a brief flash of realization and settled on an expression that Annabeth had never actually seen on his face before. It was as if he'd put on the politest mask he could possibly find, but was looking out through it with what he'd explained to her as his "wolf glare." That look spoke of the calm before a storm, something she knew he was perfectly capable of actually causing. That look said in no uncertain terms that, "I'm currently doing everything in my power to remain calm and reasonable, but if the dam breaks…" With the complexity and barely disguised hostility of that look, his voice was an intense counterpoint of pure rationality. "Yes. Especially since my destination wasn't even Katie, here. Instead, I was heading to my obviously-injured girlfriend lying over there, and I would greatly appreciate it if you would move aside so that I can reach her."

The four were clearly taken aback by his statement and change in demeanor as well as his answer. All four briefly looked over their shoulders at her and she saw four eyes widen in surprise and flashes of understanding. She and Percy watched as the four gingerly stepped aside, the visible side of the angry young man's face revealed itself to be contorted in an extremely embarrassed-looking grimace.

Percy wasted no time in rushing to her side. He stopped just short, however, with a worried expression. Annabeth decided to allay his fears by throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him down into solid and passionate kiss.

After what felt like ages and mere seconds all at once, they broke apart. "Can you stand?"

Annabeth smiled at his tone. "I think so, but I think I might need a little help. Think you can handle it, Kelp Head?"

Percy smirked gently and said, "Yeah…I think I can handle that, Wise Girl." He wrapped one of his strong arms around her back while she wrapped hers around his neck and he gently lifted her to her feet. "Sorry about the delay, Scarface over there kinda got in the way."

She frowned a little at that comment, but a quick glance behind him explained the nickname. The angry-now-sheepish young man had a particularly nasty burn scar on the left side of his face. Annabeth winced a bit in sympathy, even considering the obvious age of the wound. _Ouch…what could have done that? It's like he got a fire blast directly to one side of his face. _

Annabeth gingerly tested her balance and then nodded at Percy when she found it satisfactory. "Thanks babe. No offense, but I think it'd be better all-around if I took it from here." She said the last with a slightly admonitory look, which he returned with slightly sheepish acknowledgement.

In the time it had taken for the pair's exchange, the quartet had been joined by the girl in green that Annabeth had seen descending from the giant furry flying creature earlier. The scarred young man from before, who she now realized wasn't much older than herself, stepped forward, radiating authority despite his shaggy hair and a somewhat causal-looking sleeveless V-neck and loose shorts. In a way, he reminded her a lot of Percy. Annabeth decided to take the initiative. "Sorry about my boyfriend there. Things have been a bit…hectic for us lately, and he's always been a bit of a hothead."

She was rewarded with a surprised, yet sympathetic smirk from the scarred teen. "I've known to be called that, myself, from time to time. I've even done the surprised overreaction thing before." With the last, he shot a quick guilty glance at the green girl. "I'm Zuko, and these are Aang, Sokka, Toph, and I think at least a few of you have already met Katara."

Annabeth felt Percy stiffened slightly and heard Piper barely suppress a snort behind her at the name "Zuko." She'd have to ask them about that later. Instead, she smiled back and said, "I'm Annabeth, this Kelp Head is Percy. Behind me are Jason, Piper, Hazel, and Frank." She noticed that a clean-cut, middle aged man had come to stand beside Zuko and pointed to each of the demigods in turn as she named them. Her eyes narrowed a little at that, until she heard a soft throat-clearing behind her.

"I...um... actually already shared our names with Captain Jee, there, before anyone else was conscious," she said, "It was the most prudent decision at the time."

Annabeth nodded to let her know she agreed with the decision, and returned her attention to Zuko. "Well then, that leaves only one pressing question, then. Where is Leo?"

At Zuko's look of confusion, the man identified as Captain Jee stepped forward. "The young man in question is right over there. " The gray-clad soldiers parted when he gestured to show Leo's prone, bandaged form approximately thirty feet away. "He sustained a rather substantial head injury and has not yet regained consciousness."

"What are you talking about?" the young green girl, Toph, interjected. "He's been since we got here."

It was at that point that Leo burst into flames.

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**Tee hee, oh god I've been looking forward to ending that chapter like that. I knew before I was a quarter of the way through that I wanted that to be the last line. The image amused me no-end. And oh Percy, can never get a name right the first time...he may or may not call Katara "Katie" a few more times later.**

**So...anyone know why Percy and Piper reacted to Zuko's name? Eh? Eh? They seemed the most likely to have the reaction I was looking for, primarily due to their family background/where they grew up. Still debating whether or not Leo caught it and had a hard time not snorting from his feigning-unconsciousness position. Eh, whichever ends up working best.**

**Review response time!**

**Silver Demon Sword: Oh, Pikachu was a potential, but I think it'd be more likely from Leo, or maybe Piper.**

**GoldenSteel: Yeah, I figure it like this. If you have Dyslexia...how do you get through reading novels for English class? Methinks that Sparknotes and Cliff Notes are a demigod's best friend.**

**favfan &Bjh31 : It just made sense to me that Percy would have a more powerful control over water. In fact, in their own spheres of influence, all of the elemental demigods are more powerful than the benders. However, they do have their weaknesses against their bending counterparts, which'll come along later.**

**Gigabyte: See, I did it...barely**

**fluddershy: Yeah...I don't want anything to be quite that simple...but I was slightly tempted.**

**Brackenfern, CKA, AeshaKMae, AklFin2, & Iheartpercyjackson353: Aww, thanks, guys! I'll try not to disappoint.**

**awspiars: Wow...just..wow, dude. Are you serious? I'm incredibly touched...plus your my first Author follower and/or favoriter.**

**All of you guys are so incredibly sweet. I have a bit of a conundrum you might be able to help me with, though...**

**One of my other story ideas actually did a good enough job of kicking the back of my head this last week and I got almost the entire first chapter written in about an hour just the other day. This is my massive Eragon/Dragonriders of Pern/Drizzt universe crossover idea that I mention on my profile. Unlike Olympian Bending, I actually have a good idea where I'm planning on going with it, as well as a lot of the stuff in between, just not all of the transitions. **

**So...upside, I'd have another story in another crossover fandom set to possibly drag in more readers. Downside, whichever story is working in my brain at the time will get the update. So yeah, I'll let you guys put some input in on that.**

**Anyway, if I ramble on much more, I'll have missed my pre-Christmas deadline. **

**So, signing off for now! Hope ya guys like it.**


	8. Chapter VII (Leo POV)

**A/N: Well, didn't manage to get this one in before New Year's...so, belated Happy New Year to everyone! Mwahahaha, I felt so nicely evil at the end of the last chapter, especially when I could imagine the first person who reviewed practically sputtering at how I'd left it. I'm not completely happy with this chapter, but that's life. Nothing uber-exciting yet, just a decent amount of exposition...and Leo starting to show his awesomeness. Anyway, enough pre-chapter rambling from me, on to the story!**

**Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own none of this. If I did, I'd have a lot more money and a lot more free time.**

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Leo

_Ok…yeah…that was definitely not intentional._

Leo was more than a little worried and scared. From the way his head throbbed, he had no doubt that he had some kind of concussion, and it felt like a doozy. He needed something to focus on, and luckily there was a heated and interesting discussion going on not too far away.

It sounded like Percy had had a violent misunderstanding with one person…no surprise there, and nearly had a second right while Leo was listening in. At least It sounded like Annabeth had been able to diffuse the latter situation. He almost gave himself away with a snicker when he heard the name "Zuko," but managed to suppress the urge. What he really _hadn't _expected was the voice of a girl matter-of-factly outing him of his unconscious ruse. As best he could figure, the surprise combined with the tenuous hold he had over his abilities with a concussion had caused his self-ignition.

Now he was worried about stopping it. He usually didn't like to advertise his pyro abilities because they tended to make people a little nervous. _Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag wherever we are now._ He thought, ruefully. What others didn't realize was that it was a lot more difficult to put out a fire than to start one. Leo had only just managed to focus and begin reducing the flames when he found himself doused with ice-cold saltwater.

"Hey! What was that for!?" he sputtered at Percy, the obvious culprit. "You know you didn't need to do that!"

Percy only shook his head slowly and pointed to a pretty dark-skinned girl about ten feet away from him. She was frozen with her hand outstretched and an expression in the process of shifting from panic to confusion. Leo figured that the former had been due to his little self-immolation and the latter to his lack of injury from said lightshow.

If Leo himself hadn't been so embarrassed by the situation, he would've found the entire tableau in front of him quite hilarious. Piper and Jason had no such reservations; they were shaking with suppressed laughter. Frank and Hazel were watching him with a mix of worry and wariness. That hurt a little bit, but considering Frank's...condition, uncontrolled fire would be the last thing they wanted to be around. Percy looked a little surprised and maybe a little amused at his drenching, while Annabeth's disapproving look reminded him of one of his old teachers, or maybe Tia Callinda. All of the unfamiliar faces mirrored various levels of the dark-skinned girl's panic/surprise combination, save one.

A short girl in yellow and green caught his attention for multiple reasons. She was the only one that he didn't feel was looking directly at him, even though he couldn't see her eyes underneath her long black bangs. Her mouth, being the only expressive part of her he could see clearly, was quirked up at one side. It reminded him of how some of the Hermes cabin would look when they were scheming something. That half-thoughtful, half-amused expression was one he had been told appeared on his own face quite often when he was inventing.

Leo was broken out of his reverie by Annabeth's sharp tone. "Leo, what in Hades was that all about?"

Leo winced. "Hey, don't look at me like I _meant_ to do that!"

She only raised her eyebrow in response.

Leo's voice took on a hurt tone. "I'm telling the truth! You should know me well enough to realize that wasn't normal behavior for me. Gods, I've never even _gone_ full-body before!"

Jason chose that moment to murmur to Piper, just loud enough for Leo to hear, of course, "Flame on!" This set the both of them off into a fit of giggles, and elicited snorts from both Percy and Frank.

"That was your idea, Short Circuit, not mine." Said Leo, sourly.

"HOLD ON A SECOND! What just happened?" Clearly the dark-skinned boy in blue had had enough. "Your whole body was _on FIRE_, and your clothes aren't even singed! Even firebenders can be burned!" He said the last with a sympathetic apologetic wince at the scarred boy in red and gold next to him.

"Um…yeah. I really am sorry about that. It really wasn't intentional. My…heritage gives me a bit of an affinity for fire. Normally I can control it, but I think this concussion threw my system out of whack." The last he said while gingerly feeling the bandage around the back of his head, then something the boy had said struck him. "Wait…what's a firebender?"

The tall, scarred boy gave a small smirk and stepped forward, catching the eyes of several of the men and women around as he did so. Then Leo got one of the biggest shocks of his life. As if on cue, half a dozen people, including the scarred boy, suddenly had balls of fire suspended a few inches above their hands.

Leo's eyes bugged out and he barely stopped himself from catching fire a second time. His mind immediately jumped to the obvious conclusion: so much for Dad only giving the fire-thing to a child every few centuries. That thought only lasted a few seconds, however, as the ADHD Engineer side of Leo's mind took over. Even with this small display, he could see several differences between these people's fire generation and his own. First and foremost, the fire wasn't actually touching their skin. It was several inches away, as if they needed the insulation of the air. Second, there were far too many of them with far too similar ages, and his Dad had told him flat-out that it had been over a century since a fire-wielder had been born. This fact had been confirmed by both Chiron and Jason to Leo's satisfaction. Third, the tall boy had what was clearly a burn scar, and as his eyes flitted around, he saw several other similar, if less severe scars on those around him. Leo could not be harmed at all by fire, and so was led to the inescapable conclusion that their method of fire-manipulation was fundamentally different from his own.

It took little time for Leo's mind to process all of this, and he'd come to his final conclusion before the scarred boy had even had a chance to open his mouth. "We are firebenders. As you can see, we also have what you could call an affinity for fire, although I'd like to know how you managed to pull off that little trick of yours."

"Uhh…sure, you and me both. D'ya think that maybe we could do it without the crowd, though?" Leo said, playing up his nervousness as he looked around at the crowd of uniformed personnel surrounding them all.

The boy looked slightly taken aback at this rapid subject change. He glanced around at the small crowd and said with a smirk, "I think that can be arranged. Captain!" The last was said with kind yet firm authority to a middle-aged man with muttonchops.

Captain Muttonchops immediately began barking out his own orders, "You heard the Firelord. Back to your stations! I expect a full report from every respondent by the end of the day. DIS_MISSED!_"

Leo watched in amazement as the crowd disappeared in less than a minute, leaving only the teens and Captain Muttonchops behind. _O.K…so this guy's got some real authority around here…good to know. _

"I am Firelord Zuko, firebender and leader of the Fire Nation. This is Sokka, a warrior and leader of the Southern Water Tribe. This is his sister, Katara, an accomplished Waterbender and healer. This is Toph Bei Fong, probably the most powerful Earthbender alive. And this is Aang, the Avatar and master of all elements. From what I've seen and heard so far, it's clear that you're not from around here. I think it's high time we had an exchange of information—preferably _before_ we have any more…misunderstandings."

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**Yeah, not quite as evil this time...in fact nowhere near. This was another chapter where I wasn't completely sure how to end it. Unfortunately, I'm really starting to understand just how ambitious I was for my first writing foray. Good gods! I've essentially got 14 main characters! If your wondering who I'm considering as "Main Characters" it's as follows: Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Jason, Frank, Hazel, Leo, Aang, Zuko, Sokka, Katara, Toph, Mai, and Suki. Yes, I'm planning on including those two girls. Why? 'Cause I think they're awesome.**

**Leo is my favorite character between both universes, and I'd like to get him into a fairly prominent role in this story. Before any of you ask, I am not planning on upsetting any of the established relationships of characters, so your Percabeth, Japer, Frazel, Kataang, Maiko, and Soki pairings are all safe from me. I am toying with the idea of a closeness developing between Leo and Toph, which I started to hint at here. I'll feel it out as it goes, and if it doesn't feel right, I won't pursue it.**

**No, I still have no real idea where I want to go with the story. For now, it'll largely consist of integrating the characters while comparing their abilities, with a few vignettes thrown in afterwards. I have no idea how long it'll take for a real plot to develop, but I have a few scenes that I know I'd like to do. One such thing I know I want is for Leo and the Mechanist to go on an invention binge. The image greatly amuses me. Anyway, that's your fair warning.**

**Review Response Time:**

**SpiritGuardian: I really wasn't joking there in my intro A/N. I went to bed giggling evilly to myself after reading your review.**

**Sachmis: Yep, that was what I was going for. Any chance you'll tell me what you're crossing over in your fic?**

**CKA: Zuko's going to have plenty to say on the subject, but from what I observed in the show and in my own head, he's become a lot more focused and patient, and so was holding back and observing during the exchange in this chapter. With Zuko's more calm and collected personality, it made far more sense for Sokka to have the outburst.**

**Brackenfern: I've already addressed this. Technically, yes, they are more powerful in their respective elements, but each bender has a little trick up their sleeve that can at least temporarily flummox the demigods. Details are going to come later as far as that goes.**

**fluddershy: I swear that I wasn't even thinking about your review when I wrote this chapter. I just wrote what seemed the most natural to me, and it wasn't until I was going through to write these responses that I paused and went, "hey! wait a sec!" Still, looks like we were thinking along similar lines there.**

**Iheartpercyjacks353: Haha! I mentioned you again! I hope Leo explained the situation enough to answer your question.**

**awspiars: You have no idea. I'm even trying to develop a more dominant personality for Leo. In fact, Hazel, Frank and Aang probably have the least dominant personalities of all. I know for some that might seem odd, especially Aang, but he was never one that grabbed at power. He would step up when needed and didn't shirk his responsibilities, but he was never really a leader.**

**Silver Demon Sword: Teehee! Trollolololo! Yeah, when I told my friend Evilnor that that was how I'd ended that chapter, she told me that the best authors are at least a little sadistic.**

**AklFin2: Hmm...dunno about a full-on battle, but there'll definitely be some epic sparring. Good to know that I don't disappoint. I do try.**

**Jusan Kikan, TheHuntress99, and Im-in-Love-with-PJO: Thanks! Hope you continue to like it.**

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**P.S. I'm very soon going to be starting to post another story. Not completely sure which one yet, since I've actually got solid starts on three of them. It'll be one of the following: A short 3-part Rise of the Guardians/Stargate crossover, a Stargate/PJO/Kane Chronicles (The latter 'cause I'm planning on stealing the version of Nico from the Death God Alliance series) crossover, or my massive Eragon/Dragonriders of Pern/Forgotten Realms crossover. We shall see which muse gets the attention soon enough. I'll go in and update this with which one and the title when I know it.**

**Tzapporah signing off!**

***Edit: Went with the Guardians/Stargate crossover. It's under the title Gate-Broken Solitudes. Very short so far, but I actually have almost the entire thing figured out.**

**Also...as a followup to fluddershy...Leo answered it in _this_ _chapter._ Basically Concussion = loss of easy control over fire abilities. Concussion + surprise of Toph outing him = surprise combustion.**


	9. Chapter VIII (Piper POV)

**A/N: Aha! I'm back. Sorry for the delay, guys. Good lord, I had a frenzy of writing today. Today's a teacher workday and I was under the impression I'd be spending the entire day with my "Math Coach" who has yet to come and really talk to me. So I got all my new posters up in my classroom...and sat down to write. Everything else I need to and should be working on is at home...figures, so I did this.**

**ZOMG! Explanations!**

**Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own neither universe nor any of the characters. **

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****Chapter VIII

Piper

A silent battle of wills was taking place between the demigods as they settled into what Piper liked to think of as a storytelling circle. Considering their personalities, such a battle was neither completely unexpected nor uncommon. What was strange about this one was between whom it was taking place. Annabeth and Hazel were staring each other down, nodding, shaking their heads, and making other small gestures.

Piper could see that Percy was following the silent argument as well, clearly torn about which side he wanted to land on. His face lit up with a sudden realization. Piper couldn't help imagining a light bulb popping on above his head.

"Captain," Percy said, "before we begin, do you think you could get a world map for us?"

The captain nodded and gave a hand signal to one of the crewmen remaining on deck. Annabeth was giving Percy a warily curious look, while Hazel was a picture of amazed gratitude.

A crewman came up with a rolled-up chart in his hand and handed it to the Captain, who handed it to Percy. Percy unrolled it in his hands so that Annabeth could see. Piper had never seen Annabeth's eyes bug out like that before. She watched as the blonde gulped and looked up at Hazel, giving a small nod.

Annabeth then turned her attention to the other five teens, who'd been watching the exchange with interest. "So," she said cautiously, most of her focus on the older boy that seemed in charge, "what do you know about Greece, Mr. Zuko?"

Leo let out a snort that quickly dissolved into a small fit of giggles, and Piper grinned. She knew exactly what had set the boy off, and if her read of Percy's quirked lips was right, he did as well.

The boy—Zuko—was thoroughly confused. "It's just Zuko, and what's gotten into him?"

Piper couldn't leave it alone for any longer. "I think he just made the mental connection of the name Zuko and the word Grease. Don't mind him; it's a cultural reference that we'll explain later." She ignored the confused glances the four demigods that _didn't_ get the reference were throwing her.

Zuko blinked at her. "Ookaay. Sounds like a long story, and I am going to want that explanation later." The last he said with a small half-smile. Good, it looked like he had a halfway-decent sense of humor. "But in answer to your question—Annabeth was it?—the only grease I know of is the type used for cooking or to lubricate machinery."

They ignored Leo's redoubled giggles. "Ah, no…wrong kind of Greece. Greece is a country with a long ancient history. The Ancient Greeks had an entire pantheon of gods and goddesses to embody aspects of nature and their lives. The culture they developed has had massive impact on our culture today."

"Question," the dark boy—Sokka—interjected, "What are 'gods and goddesses'? The things you're talking about sound more like spirits."

"You don't know what gods are?" Jason asked, aghast. His reaction was understandable, considering he'd essentially been raised by the Roman Legion and had never really _not_ known about the Gods.

Piper decided to intervene before anything bad came of this. "Calm down, Jason." She turned to address the boy known as Sokka, "I'm familiar with the 'spirits' you refer to. The Gods are a similar idea, but on a much grander scale. For instance, you may have a spirit of a specific lake, river, or forest, yes?" At the quintet's collective nod, she continued "Well, the Gods embody things greater than that, some physical and some abstract. Poseidon, for instance, is the god of the Seas, Storms, and Earthquakes; while Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty."

"Oh. So they're like Super-Spirits!" The boy said enthusiastically.

"Um…close enough, I guess." Said Annabeth, taking charge again. "Thank you for that, Piper. Anyway, those gods and goddesses…are real and still around today." She paused, awaiting the reaction she usually received when declaring this little nugget.

The others just stared at her for a few moments before the until-now silent bald boy spoke up. "Well, of course they are. I've met and conversed with a number of spirits, heck it's part of my job description. If the spirits are around, why shouldn't your super-spirit things be?"

"Um...okay, let's leave that one as it is for now and move on." Piper noticed that Frank and Hazel were now studying the tattooed boy with renewed curiosity. "Anyway, sometimes these gods and goddesses fall in love with a mortal, and sometimes children are born from these couplings. These children are called demigods. The seven of us are such demigods."

Now _that_ elicited the right reaction. "Wait, you're saying you're half-spirits?" the boy called Sokka said incredulously. "How does that even work? Never mind, I don't want to think about it."

Zuko merely observed them with mild surprise and only mildly said, "Toph?"

The young girl in green and yellow piped up, "Oh, they're telling the truth alright. As much as I approve of anyone yanking Twinkletoes's over there's chain, they actually believe every word they're saying."

The eyes of all seven demigods snapped to the girl; even Leo was cut off in mid-snicker to stare at her in stunned silence. How had she been so certain of that? She hadn't looked like she'd even been listening, staring somewhere off to the side during the entire conversation. Piper looked more carefully at her under the girl's concealing bangs. She realized what had been off about the girl at the same time as Leo exclaimed, "Wait…you're blind!"

"Amazing powers of observation, Tinderbox. Yeah, I'm blind, what of it?" She shot back.

"I…just…um…" Leo, unable to answer the question trailed off into an embarrassed silence.

Toph just smirked, "I thought so. Back to the explanation now, sister!" The last she shot in Annabeth's direction.

Also clearly intrigued, Annabeth fought down her Athenian desire to question and continued. "Yes, as Ii said, we're all demigods. My mother was the goddess Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, Law, Righteous Warfare, Strategy and Skill. I inherited a good deal of my battle prowess from my mother, and she fell in love with my father for his intelligence and fascination with military strategy."

Percy quickly picked up the thread that Annabeth had left for him. "I'm a son of Poseidon, whom Piper already told you is the God of the Seas, Storms, and Earthquakes. I can control water, as Katie over there can attest to." Piper had to stop herself from facepalming. Percy had never been very good at names, and it looked like it was going to continue here. Zuko, Sokka, and the tattooed boy identified as Aang all had confused looks on their faces, while Katara was giving Percy an exasperated glare and Toph's mouth quirked up in amusement.

"Katara, Percy." Annabeth tiredly corrected as she massaged the bridge of her nose. Realization dawned on the three boys' faces.

"Katara, right. Yeah…I'm also guessing by the state of my clothes that you also saw that seawater heals me?" He directed his question to Katara, who nodded wide-eyed back at him. "Yeah, that was definitely a pleasant surprise for me the first time I found out. The storm thing I've only ever done in the middle of battle. I've made a whirlwind around myself when fighting a large number of enemies before, but it's very tiring. Earthquakes…yep, never caused one and never tried to. I'm pretty sure that's _not_ one of the things I got from my dad."

Percy left things at that, although Piper knew he'd left out his absolute bearings at sea, his ability to control any sea vessel he was aboard perfectly and his ability to communicate with sea creatures and horses. It was good, after all, to hold some information in reserve.

Hazel took up the exposition next. "My father is Pluto, God of the Underworld and…other things found under the earth. I have some small control over groundwork and tunnels, and better control over precious metals and gemstones." Piper watched the shy girl speak and felt a pang of sympathy for her. Hazel had made great strides, but was still lacking in the confidence department.

Before anyone could question her, Frank protectively took the reins. "My father is Mars, God of War." He winced a bit. "It's not as bad as it sounds. Mars was more of a War-for-the-goal-of-Peace type of deity than one of carnage. I can use any type of weapon well with just a little practice…and Percy likes to tell me that I'm a good tactician." Percy nodded emphatically at this declaration, making Hazel smile. Frank had only mentioned what he'd received from his father's side and not his mother's. His shapeshifting would probably come out later, but he had not explicitly lied by keeping that information out. Well done. It looked like they were being careful of honesty levels with Little Miss Lie-Detector on hand.

Now it was Jason's turn, "My father is Jupiter, God of the Sky and Thunder. As such, I have control over the air and lightning." Boy had he left that empty, but technically all true. He'd left out his control over skybound creatures or the fact that he could actually _fly_. Heck, considering Percy's little laundry list from earlier, Jason was making himself sound completely wimpy.

Piper was broken out of her musings by an elbow to the side from Jason. Right, it was her turn. "My mother is Aphrodite. Like I said before, she's the Goddess of Love and Beauty. I didn't get much from her, as you might expect, but I've got a knack for being persuasive." She poured a trickle of Charmspeak into her statement to encourage them to believe her and leave it at that. Her Charmspeak was a distinct tactical advantage that could be neutralized easily, so she didn't want to give it away too early.

Leo had finished his study of the blind girl and was ready to finish off the round. "My father's Hephaestus, God of Blacksmiths, Craftsmen, Artisans, Fire and Volcanos. I can build and/or fix just about anything, and you've already seen my fire-creation and –immunity skills. And that's about it."

The others didn't seem to know what to make of all of this, but were saved from answering when a crewman tapped Zuko on the shoulder. "Sir, it's almost nightfall."

Piper watched as Zuko and Sokka's eyes widened and the two paled. "Thank you, Ensign, we were almost late!" Then the two spooked teens vaulted onto the giant fluffy flying monster, yelled "Yip Yip!" and took off eastward.

Felt completely lost as Toph began to laugh. Aang and Katara started to snicker not long after. Even the Captain had a small smile on his face.

The demigods exchanged glances, but no answer was forthcoming from the amused quartet. They were going to have to wait for their answer.

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**For those that didn't get the joke about Zuko's name, I'll explain it now. I was thinking Danny Zuko, as in the lead from the show "Grease." This led to some fun homonym play with Grease/Greece. **

**Here's also my logic for who got the joke: **

**Piper's the daughter of a movie star, so she's had a lot of exposure to the arts in multiple forms. **

**Percy grew up in New York City, which I think he would've had to at least _heard_ some of the details in passing of the various shows around. His initial reaction was just because the name felt a little familiar; he couldn't place it until the homonym fun. **

**Leo got bounced around foster homes and such...plus he's an Engineering nerd, and being one of those, I know that there's a surprising correlation between the two interests. Plus, I just thought it'd be funny for him to get it.**

**Jason and Annabeth didn't get it because they essentially spent their childhoods at their respective camps. The play came out well after Hazel died, and she hasn't actually been trying to pick up on all of the pop culture she missed. Frank...well...I just got the feeling that that wasn't the environment he was raised in. As wonderful as his mom was, she and his grandma weren't the musicals types.**

**Review Responses!**

**HaideeAlmightyXD: Awww, thanks! I am definitely trying to keep everyone in character, even though it's not easy sometimes. I agree with you that one of the first things that'll turn me away from a fic is if a character, especially one I particularly like, is grossly out of character. Even though I'm not a Grammar-Nazi, when it's bad it does tend to jump out at me and ruin my enjoyment of an otherwise-great fic. I've really only been able to overcome that with one of the fics I read, and even then each new chapter is a war between completely enjoying the plot and wanting to grab a red pen. **

**fluddershy: In case you missed my post-edit on the previous chapter. Leo + Concussion = much less control over fire creation. Leo + Surprise = smoking/smoldering on any normal occasion. Leo + Concussion + Surprise = full-on spontaneous combustion.**

**awspairs: Yep, Toph's my favorite, too. I actually have a poster up in my classroom of Toph vs. the Weeping Angels. Leo's my favorite little mischief-maker in the PJOverse, and the two are each the 7th wheels of their respective groups...so yeah...**

**Azulabeifong: Refer to my comments to awspairs.**

**Green nook: Yep, and I would've loved to see the faces of my readers as they read that.**

**I look forward to even more reviews on this chapter!**

**To everyone else: Thanks for the reviews! I have no idea when the next update'll be. I've got a pretty hectic couple of weeks coming up.**

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**I'll also take this time to plug my other two stories that I have going:****  
**

**Gate-Broken Solitudes is an SG-1/Rise of the Guardians crossover that's been getting fairly rapidly updated...largely due to the fact that I got a bit of a buffer of material written. It's going to be relatively short. I doubt it'll go more than 15 chapters or so.**

**The intro to Between Worlds is up and I'll be adding to it when I have the time to sit and write it. It's a big ol' Eragon/Dragonriders of Pern/Drizzt Books/Cleric Quintet/Warlock of Gramarye crossover, which I largely know what I plan to do with it, just need to get down to the gritty details and write. I'll readily admit that it'll be updated rather slowly.**

**Tzapporah signing off!**

**Tzappora**


	10. Chapter IX (Percy POV)

**A/N: I'm baaaack! Sorry about the long wait, guys. I've had a lot on my plate lately. I _did_ warn you that I was going to have a longer time in posting this update...although I wasn't planning on it to take this long. Fair warning this time, It'll probably be at least another week or two before chapter X, since I've still got some stuff to do for my certification, due by the 25th.** **Anyway, on with the story!**

**Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own neither universe...if I did, I wouldn't need to worry about making money and would be able to write more often.**

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**Percy**

Percy exchanged a confused look with Annabeth, but she was just as perplexed as he was. A quick look around to his fellow demigods showed similar states of confusion…with the exception of Leo, whose expression was more "where have I seen that before" than "WTF?"

Percy had to admit, Leo hadn't impressed him all that much at first. After all, his first real encounter with the guy had been when the Son of Hephaestus had demonstrated his goodwill to the massively-annoying and suspicious Octavian; showing the older boy around the Argo II and then opening fire on New Rome with its impressive weaponry. Ok, granted, that wasn't the kid's fault. He'd been taken over by an evil spirit at the time and had had no control over his actions. Percy knew exactly what that was like; after all, he and Jason had tried to kill each other for the same reason not long after. He mentally cringed a little at the memory; having no control over his own actions had NOT been a pleasant experience.

Then there was the whole awkwardness around Hazel, since Leo was the spitting image of his great-grandfather, whom Hazel had known—and had a crush on—at that age. This was also not his fault, but Percy couldn't really help that it had stuck with him.

Both of these things, plus his early behavior had given Percy the impression of a mechanically clever, but inept in the normal demigod areas boy who added a new definition to the term ADHD. Seriously, the kid would bounce from one thing to another faster than a superball. Just watching him drive the ship was like watching a Ping-Pong match. He was also an apt fighter, as all demigods kind of had to be, just not a very adept one.

As they'd traveled together, the ADHD impression was only solidified, but he'd begun to see a side of the kid that made him start to think that Leo was smart, not just machine-savant-smart, but seriously smart enough to give Annabeth a run for her money.

The boy in question turned towards Percy, the calculating look still on his face. As soon as the two locked eyes, however, his widened in realization, causing Percy's to narrow in suspicion. A huge guffaw erupted from him and was soon shaking in mirth.

Aaand then again, the kid could be seriously irritating. Percy's annoyance level had been steadily rising over the course of the day. He was on an unfamiliar ocean in an unfamiliar world; a thoroughly-disorienting sensation for the son of the sea god for whom the ocean had always been a source of solace. The fact that he'd figured out they were on a completely different world before Annabeth had only given marginal and temporary satisfaction. It had only lasted until he'd been listing the abilities he had as a Son of Poseidon where a quick and surreptitious poke to the small of his back had served as a firm warning to _shut up!_ It had thrown him enough to lamely end on a pseudo-lie about never having caused an earthquake. _Technically_ it had been an eruption…which wouldn't've happened if his little quake hadn't enabled Typhon to burst out. He had no idea why the little lie-detector girl hadn't called him out on it, which only set him even more on edge.

The rapid exit of the two older boys and the subsequent laughter of the three remaining teens had simply added to the confusion, but hadn't yet pushed him over the edge. No…the real icing on the cake was that _he_ was now apparently at least partially the butt of said joke. He opened his mouth to snap at Leo for an explanation, but never got the chance.

The green lie-detector girl—Top or something like that—beat him to it. "What do you think _you're_ laughing at, tinderbox?" She said sharply, pointing a firm and accusing finger.

Surprise at the outburst effectively silenced the entire circle. Leo blinked for a few seconds and then grinned sheepishly. "Well…I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure those guys' girlfriends are going to _kill_ them."

Everyone froze for a moment in stunned silence, which was broken by a bark of laughter from the girl. "Hah! Got it in one, tinderbox! How'd you know?"

Percy had an inkling of what Leo's response was going to be and just closed his eyes in resignation…at least _now_ it made sense. "I kinda recognized the looks on their faces, since I've seen it before on him." Leo said, jerking his thumb towards the older boy, who started massaging the bridge of his nose.

_Come on. I can't be the only one of us who's had that look…crap, I am. Hazel and Piper are both able fighters, but…somehow I can't see either of them judo-flipping Frank or Jason…although the former would be an interesting sight._ He mentally shook himself out of that idle train of thought._ Stupid ADHD, get back on track. Anyway, that flip _was_ the first time Leo, Piper, and Jason had ever seen him…_sigh_ first impressions and all that. Yup, gotta just suck this one up._

When he opened his eyes again from his musing, he saw that all of the other demigods were in agreement; each one had at least the ghost of a smile on their face, although Frank and Jason's at least had a sympathetic edge.

Percy felt it was high time he changed the subject. "Anyway, we've answered your questions, how about you return the favor? Like, what in Hades is a 'bender'? 'Cause I don't think it's the same thing as it is in our world."

The two sighted teens exchanged a glance and the bald boy—Angle was it?—was the one that ultimately answered. "Well…I've never really had to explain it to someone before, but from what you guys've said, I can see why you wouldn't know. Hmm…do you know what chi is?"

Frank spoke up. "It's an Asian concept. It's essentially the life-force or spiritual energy of a person, right? My grandmother used to like to lecture me about that kind of stuff all the time." He said in explanation.

Angle—that didn't sound quite right—nodded in agreement. "Yes, that's pretty much it, although I don't know what 'Asian' is. Anyway, benders have the ability to direct that chi outside of them to change the flow of a specific element. For Katara, it's Water; for Toph, it's Earth, although she's brilliant and also figured out how to bend metal." The girl in question flashed them with a self-satisfied smirk. "Zuko, as well as most of the other benders on this ship, is a Firebender. I'm…a bit of a special case."

"That's a bit of an understatement, Twinkletoes."

"Stop it, Toph." Interjected Katara, responding to the flush that had grown in the boy's cheeks. "Aang's the Avatar. The Avatar is born once in a generation to one of the four bending nations; Aang, for example, is an Air Nomad, and was therefore born among Airbenders. The next Avatar will be born in one of the Water Tribes, the next to the Earth Kingdom, and the one after that to the Fire Nation. That is the cycle of the Avatar."

"Really?" Said Hazel, clearly fascinated by the concept. "You said once in a Generation…is it a reincarnation kind of thing or can there be more than one Avatar at once?"

Aang looked at her in mild surprise. "Reincarnation. You guys believe in it? Not everyone here does. Even Sokka thinks that I'm a special case."

All seven demigods nodded, and Hazel replied. "Yes, we actually all know someone whose sister chose reincarnation after she died, and…well…I know more about post-death existence than most, considering who my father is."

All three benders looked supremely confused. "Um…did we miss something? What does your father have to do with anything?"

Hazel returned the look. "I said he was the God of the Underworld, I thought that it was obvious."

"Um…sorry, what's 'the Underworld'?" Katara replied.

All seven pairs of eyes bugged out at this question. "Ah…well…um…that explains the confusion." Hazel stammered out. "Simply put, the Underworld is where all souls, both good and bad, go after they die. Some call it the Land of the Dead. Evil souls go to the Fields of Punishment for eternity, neutral souls go to the Fields of Asphodel, and good souls go to the Paradise of Elysium. Souls in Elysium can choose to reincarnate and live again. Those that have earned Elysium three times become permanent residents of the Isle of the Blessed. There's a lot more complicated and unimportant details, but they're not really important right now."

"Indeed." Came the surprising response from the largely-silent Captain. Percy had almost forgotten he was there. "As fascinating and enlightening as this information-exchange has been, there has been one glaring omission on your part." All seven demigods looked back in mild confusion. "You seven weren't the only ones to come through that strange vortex."

_Huh? What's he talking about?_ Katara's face lit up in understanding. "Oh yeah! What was that animal thing that you and Leo were riding, Hazel? And where did it go? I've never seen anything quite like it before."

Realization dawned for Percy. _Arion. She's talking about Arion. That's right; Hazel was astride him with Leo flopped in front of her when this whole thing started. But he just looks like a horse. They've never seen anything like a _horse_ before?_

"Um…that would be Arion. He's a horse, really the ultimate horse, since the others can't run on water…or at supersonic speeds, for that matter." Said Hazel. "As to where he went…I'm going to guess he ran off to do his own thing. He does that; he's a very free spirit and should not be bound. He's a pretty gentle soul and won't hurt anyone out there."

Percy snorted at that one. Hazel wouldn't say that if she actually _heard_ some of the things that horse said.

"Ok…he won't go out of his way to hurt anyone, but he hates being caged and I can't vouchsafe for anyone who tries."

"I…see." Said the Captain. "Could you possibly make him come here so that we can confirm at least some of what you say?"

She shot a quick glance of askance at Percy. "Um…maybe. He likes me, but there's no guarantee that he'll come, or that he's even close enough to hear." Her face brightened. "Hey Percy…think you could put your New Yorker skills to good use?"

A slow grin spread across Percy's face. _Nice cover. _"Sure, although the rest of you might want to plug your ears." He raised his right hand to his lips and stuck his finger and thumb into his mouth and let loose with his best eardrum-piercing cab-whistle while simultaneously mentally yelling, _Hey, Arion, get your horse's ass back here!_

He felt a faint and reluctant mental acknowledgement in response and smiled at the wincing people around him. "That should've done the trick, if anything." Yep, his mood was definitely improving.

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**A/N: Yep...Percy's still just as bad at names as ever. I'm doing my best to come up with amusing mistakes and/or nicknames. Before any of you ask, no, I'm not planning on narrating every single moment of the events of this fic. There will be time jumps and some episodic mini-arcs, I'm just getting the endless fountain of exposition out of the way first. It just doesn't seem likely to me that either side'd immediately accept the other without knowing a good deal more.**

**Oh, and to forestall any language-nazis out there, a meaning of vouchsafe that is unused in modern vernacular is "to ensure the safety of." Hazel, however, is not completely modern, and so I decided to have her use the slightly more archaic form of the word.**

**Review response time!**

**Gigabyte2598: I'll admit...I had a little eye-twitch when I first read your comment. Grease was first a stage show and then it was adapted into a movie, just like Les Miserables, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd, RENT, and a number of others. Leo would only have been familiar with it from the movie version, Percy, like I said, is a New Yorker, and Piper...has probably seen it both ways.**

**sivanool: Lieutenant Jee was the commander of the ship that Zuko had while he was in exile. My friend Evilnor wrote a fic where...well, pretty much the stuff I have Jee musing over in the prologue, happened. I foreshortened it, of course, but I put in the general gist. I highly recommend you read her fic. The Forgotten Ones: Lieutenant Jee.**

**Daydreamer: Yes, the prologue was intended to be a little disjointed. Each set of 0-0-0's denotes a break between the two universes. I will, later in the story, explain what was going on on the demigod side, at which point, I recommend you go back and read that part of the prologue. I'll try to give an A/N indicator as to when I think I've provided enough information. Some has already come out in trickles.**

**jka039: Yeah...I know I sent you a PM about it, but thanks for pointing out that little mistake to me. I honestly had forgotten about Percy blowing up Mt. St. Helens. I made a small reference to it in this chapter, but don't worry, it'll be fully addressed later.**

**nekoanimegirl: Mmm...confusion. Confusion can be fun...especially when you get the key piece to the puzzle later...then everything just clicks into place.**

**TurkeyHead: Yes, this is only just beginning, but as I said early on, I have no real idea where I'm going with it. =/ It should be quite long when I'm finished, though.**

**For all of you that demanded an update...I hope this was to your satisfaction. Mr. Angry Guest Reviewer...I'm sorry! *shrinks away* The Band of Thieves: I do have to say your method of demanding an update amused me greatly.**

**Thanks to all of you that reviewed and your words of encouragement! I'm glad you're enjoying the story.**

**On that note: Holy Crap! 100 Reviews! SWEET!**

**Tzapporah signing off!**


	11. Chapter X (Jason POV)

**A/N: VICTORY! Oh god, sorry about the long-ass update delay. This chapter fought me every single step of the way. But here it is! Hopefully the length'll help make up for the delay.**

******Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own neither universe...if I did, I'd be going to every convention that I could...**

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Jason

_Ow. Seriously….ow._ Jason shook his head in a futile attempt to remove the ringing in his ears. He hadn't caught onto what Hazel and Jackson were planning quite fast enough to plug his ears in time. _Great Jupiter! _That had been painful. He was only slightly mollified to see that he was far from the only one in that situation. In fact, the only ones besides the perpetrator largely unaffected by the noise seemed to be Leo, Hazel, the Captain, and the Air-Avatar Kid, Aang. Not even Annabeth had escaped it, even though she'd clapped her hands over her ears almost instantly; apparently proximity beat protection this time. _Oh, she's gonna make him pay for that later._

"_WHAT THE CRAP WAS THAT!?"_

Then you had the other end of the spectrum. _Well, they do say that you're other senses are heightened when you're blind._ Jason thought, as the girl Toph leapt to her feet and stood facing Percy with open hostility.

"You've never heard anyone whistle before?" Percy replied, the very picture of innocence.

"YOU KNOW _DAMN_ WELL WHAT I MEAN!" She shouted back, stomping her foot angrily. There was a faint rumble from the other side of the large building on deck and the bald boy was at her side in an instant, laying a calming hand on her shoulder. "Stupid wood" she muttered, kicking the deck as she heeded his unspoken warning. The last comment elicited a number of confused looks from the demigods.

Percy, for his part, seemed to have come to the same conclusion about Toph's senses as Jason had and was sheepishly rubbing the back of his shaggy head. "I _am_ sorry. I just thought it would be a bit funny; I didn't take your more sensitive hearing into account. I haven't exactly gotten a lot of sleep lately."

Jason winced a little at that last statement. He'd almost forgotten that Percy and Annabeth had just spent a month in Tartarus—definitely far from restful—and then had come out directly into battle. Hell, the last time the guy'd slept must have been _in_ Tartarus—unconscious and almost dying from a poisoned wound didn't count. Annabeth's exhaustion was obvious in her posture, while only the bags under his eyes supported Percy's claim. Jason suspected Percy was still enjoying the after-effects of the oceanic adrenaline-shot he'd gotten earlier; he'd crash sooner or later, and when he did, he'd crash hard.

Percy's attempt to mollify Toph had little to no effect. She sat on the deck and glowered in his general direction. The silence was decidedly awkward and tense; Aang and Katara were watching the small girl warily. Suddenly Katara's face lit up. "Hey Aang. We haven't really sparred in a while, at least not like we used to. Think these guys would like to see a little bending?"

"Why would—?" the bald kid began, and then realization dawned on his face, "Yeah, sure! That sounds like a great idea, Katara! Toph, ready for a three-way brawl?"

The effect was profound and immediate; the girl's face shone with a sort of manic glee. "You know it!" Jason saw the smile on her face turn conniving as she stood up and began heading around the building in the center of the ship. "C'mon, slowpokes. I don't care _what_ you are, you ain't gonna want to miss this!"

Jason found himself scrambling to get up and follow the small spitfire. A quick glance around showed him the other demigods in a similar state. He, Piper, Frank, and Hazel were the quickest to rise, while Percy lent his supporting shoulder to Annabeth and Leo pulled himself up with the ship's railing, silently refusing offers of assistance. The Captain excused himself and Aang and Katara waited behind for their guests to get themselves together before leading the way in Toph's wake. Jason was painfully aware of the fact that their path gave the demigods' confiscated weapons a wide berth. He missed _Ivlivs_, his magical spear/sword/coin that always returned to his pocket, much like Percy's Riptide. He hated seeing the _gladius_ that Juno had given him go out of his sight as they rounded the corner. He was also a bit surprised when he notices a surprising number of crewmembers making their way in the opposite direction. It was as if they were escaping the area of the ship the teens were all headed. He didn't know whether to be excited or disconcerted by the exodus.

"Holy crap!" Leo's exclamation broke him out of his musings, "That thing is HUGE. How far down does it go?"

_This from the guy who put _stables _on his giant flying Greek warship and flew us halfway across the country on a bronze dragon? I'm not sure I want to know what's got him so excited._ Jason had taken it upon himself to bring up the rear of the group since Percy was busy supporting Annabeth; a decision he was regretting as he heard other incredulous gasps from the demigods ahead of him. When he rounded the corner, it was quite easy to understand their reaction.

In what he now realized must have been the middle of the absolutely _massive_ ship was a huge expanse of stone. It extended the full 70-ish feet from port to starboard on the ship and was about 30 feet across. The railings on the ship's sides around the slab were hastily being removed by a few nervous-looking crewmen; anyone that reached the edge would fall into the ocean.

Toph stood in the middle of the slab with an enormous grin on her face. Suddenly, she brought her arms together in front of her and stomped. Jason couldn't suppress a brief yell of surprise when a slab of rock, six inches thick and a little taller than she shot up out of the ground. "That answer your question, matchstick?"

Jason heard Leo gulp, clearly trying to process what he'd just seen…or so Jason thought. "You mean they put a 300-tonne rock in the middle of their ship? Just for you to play with?" _Of course…he's still caught up in the mechanics and design of the damned ship. Sometimes I forget he's a child of Hephaestus._

"Yup!" She replied, happily, returning the summoned rock into the giant slab with a heel flick and no visible seam. He found the girl's "bending" a bit worrying. The only one he'd ever known to have that kind of control over stone was Gaea…and even she hadn't displayed this kind of speed. If all was what it seemed, this girl could truly be formidable.

"This is all solid rock?" Percy asked, gingerly stepping onto the surface. "How'd you get it—?" The rest of his sentence was broken off as a flick of an ankle and a malicious half-smile from Toph caused the ground to move quickly enough out from under his feet to knock him backwards. Only his demigod battle-reflexes kept the wind from getting knocked out of him as he threw his arms backwards to painfully break his fall. "Ow! What in Hades was that for?"

"That," she said, with a self-satisfied smirk, "was payback. Now we're even Fish-for-brains."

Jason snorted and heard several others do the same, Annabeth was openly snickering and giving her boyfriend a look that said, "Oh yeah, totally deserved." Even Aang and Katara were smiling at the exchange, although Katara was also throwing a slightly disapproving look Toph's way.

Percy, for his part, couldn't maintain a glare at the girl for more than a few seconds before sheepishly smiling and agreeing, "Yeah…I guess I did deserve that. So…um, think you could give me a push up? My arms are a little stunned from breaking my fall."

Toph seemed to contemplate this request for a moment before replying, "Eh, sure." and with a smooth gesture of her hand, a section of stone came up between Percy's shoulder blades and gently pushed him upright. Jason winced a little in sympathy at the angry scrapes on the dark-haired boy's forearms.

"Thanks," he said, working the shock out of his joints, "but if it's all the same to you, I'm going to go back to the less solid, but less volatile wood over by my girlfriend. I'm really starting to dislike earth…" The last bit delivered as an annoyed mutter. Jason couldn't really blame him. After all, they'd been in a war with Mother Earth for the better part of a year; a war that had caused him to be torn away from the people that he loved and have his memory wiped. True, Jason's memory had been wiped as well, but he'd had neither family nor love back at Camp Jupiter, no matter Reyna's interest. In point of fact, he'd actually _found_ both as a result.

"Here, let me." Katara said, gracefully floating water out of a skin on her side as she moved towards the grumbling boy. Percy gave her a curious look. "I have healing abilities…remember, I was trying to heal that big gash in your side before your friend there suggested chucking you in the ocean."

Hazel gave an indignant squawk at the same time Percy exclaimed, "She said WHAT?!"

"Hey now," Hazel finding words quickly after the initial surprise, "I said 'put' not 'chuck'. Don't go putting words in my mouth."

"Aww. And here I thought you'd developed a sense of humor." Came Percy's needling reply.

She glared at him half-heartedly for a moment before rolling her eyes. "Anyway, she's not making it up. I'm not sure how, but she was using water to try to heal you before, Polybotes poison was just working against her."

Percy, completely trusting Hazel's judgment nodded to Katara. "Alright, let's see what your healing hands can do."

All seven, even Hazel, watched as she enveloped her hands in the water she'd been floating. Percy tensed a little when the water began to glow with a soft blue light, but relaxed immediately in relief as it made contact with his injured skin. "Ok…screw ambrosia and unicorn draught, I'm going glowy-water healing from now on."

Katara raised an eyebrow and snorted. "Good luck with that…but thanks for the compliment." The glow subsided and she moved her hands away from the now-mended flesh; the watching demigods released a collective breath they hadn't realized they were holding.

"How…how does it feel now?" Leo asked tentatively.

"Great! Just like new!" Percy replied, rolling his shoulders and flexing his elbows to demonstrate. He then turned back towards the benders with an eager grin and said, "Now how about that bending brawl we were promised?"

Katara's eyes took on a mischievous glint, "Oh, I agree. Let's get down to business." On the last word, she executed a pivoted twist that would've made a discus thrower jealous, causing a spout of water to rise from the ocean and rush towards the small girl still standing in the middle of what was now clearly an arena.

At the last second, a wedge of rock shot up, sending the water to either side of the still-dry and manically-grinning Earthbender. "Nice try, Sweetness, but you're gonna need to do a lot better than that!" Within seconds, the arena became a pandemonium of flying rock and splashing water.

"Fair warning," Aang, who'd just materialized in front of the mesmerized demigods, said, "Bending is not the safest thing to be a spectator for." As if on cue, a 2-foot-diameter rock came flying at the boy's head, which he deflected over the side of the ship with a perfectly-executed tornado-kick. "See what I mean? So keep alert—"

"Hey, Twinkletoes, ya gonna jabber all day? Get your airy butt in here!" An earthen hand shot out to grab the boy around his waist, which he neatly evaded with a 10-foot jump…only to be caught full-on in the face by a water jet, effectively knocking him into the mayhem.

Jason didn't know much about this bending stuff, but he knew combat, and it was obvious that these three were very skilled warriors. Thanks to his heritage, he had complete control over wind and air, but he'd never really thought to use it as a _primary_ weapon. He'd never thought to use it to maneuver like the kid Aang was, either. It had always been sort of an on-the-side kind of thing…but to see it used so effectively and creatively…Jason was agog. A glance to the side revealed similar reaction from Percy, whose eyes were almost bugging out of his head as he watched Katara use a stream of water to slice a boulder in half like a piece of cheese. As he watched, Percy's head cocked a little to the side and his eyes seemed to unfocus; he appeared to ponder something for a moment, absently nod once in affirmation, and then wince before returning his attention back to the brawl.

_What was that all about? That's that look he gets when he's talking to—OH! Heh…so much for seeing Arion. Looks like he decided he didn't want to come into this carnage…and judging by that wince, he was his usual eloquent self about it._ He thought as he turned back to spectating with a small smirk on his face.

He didn't even notice when Zuko and Sokka returned…not until there was suddenly a great deal more fire added to the fray. The combustion served as enough of a surprise that his battle instincts kicked back in and put him immediately on the alert, rapidly checking his surroundings.

"Hmm…Zuko said you guys looked like fighters…guess that proves it." A bored-sounding near-monotone said behind him, causing him to whip around and fall into a defensive crouch. Sokka and a pretty girl about their age were nearly doubled over giggling with Piper was standing right next to them, facepalming at him. A Goth-looking girl in a long flowing pantsuit and a giant hairdo stood in front of the trio and quirked her eyebrow at him. "My, aren't we jumpy?"

He straightened, a bit embarrassed. "Sorry, you kind of surprised me. I take it you two ladies are the ones that Sokka and Zuko zipped out of here like a Hellhound on Red Bull was on chasing them to retrieve?"

"Well, I don't know about the other things," The previously-laughing girl with her arm around Sokka's shoulders replied with a grin, "but yep, that's us! I'm Suki, and this is Mai."

Jason shook their proffered hands. "Jason," when they both nodded, he winced and added, "Or did Piper introduce you to all of us while I was absorbed in the free-for-all?"

"Nah, Zuko's just good at descriptions…as long as Sokka doesn't help."

"Hey! That's not fair!" protested the object of the jibe.

She put a placating hand on his chest. "Ok, ok, you're descriptions are fine…as long as you don't try to draw them."

The result was a hurt glare from him and an unabashed grin from her lasting for several seconds. She then took the initiative and broke the standoff by giving him a quick kiss. Ignoring Mai's eyeroll at their antics, she turned to Jason and said. "So, what about that sparring match fascinates you so much, especially so much more than your friends?"

A little surprised, Jason checked on the other demigods to see that she was definitely not exaggerating about their lack of attentiveness. Leo was deep in an avid conversation with the Captain and a man that had the grimy look he'd come to associate with an engineer. Frank looked like he was trying to convince Hazel of something, judging by the gestures, it had something to do with the benders. Percy and Annabeth were leaning together, fast asleep; Jason had been right about him crashing. "Well, can't really speak for the others, but I find you can tell a lot about someone by the way they fight."

Mai's eyebrows rose slightly and Sokka and Suki half-smiled in pleased surprise. "And what does watching them tell you?"

"Well…" Jason said carefully, "I think my companions and I had some phenomenal luck in the first people we encountered in this world."

Sokka's chest puffed out. "Aww, you're just flattering us."

"No, I really do mean it. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say that you've all been through a number of battles, both large-scale and skirmishes. Considering your ages and the fact that you're still here tells me you came out on top of those battles."

"But how do you know that's a good thing for you? Those with power are rarely the good guys." Suki challenged.

Jason smiled sourly, thinking of Octavian, "Oh, don't I know it, but I noticed something else. While I'm clearly no expert in your 'bending' disciplines, I can still see that the moves and attacks they are using are brutal, but nonlethal. I realize that this is just a sparring match, but in my experience, you still practice your lethal moves when you spar. Every single potentially lethal move they use is one that can be easily changed into a still-effective nonlethal one. In my experience, that kind of mercy is rarely seen in bad-guy training."

Sokka's face took on a pensive look, "Hmm…well said."

Suddenly Piper chipped in, "Plus, even though Aang warned us that being a spectator to benders was dangerous, nothing more than a little gravel or a light splash has come our way. They're going out of their way to minimize the collateral damage."

"Wow, you guys must be veterans of a lot of battles, too." Said Suki.

"Yeah…I'd say that's an understate—" his word was cut off by a yawn. "I think Percy and Annabeth might have the right idea. It's been a long day for all of us, and I don't know when those two last slept. I hate to impose on you guys, but…"

"Not a problem," responded Mai, "the ship's still pretty undermanned, so there should be plenty of spare bunks. Now we just have to end the knucklehead melee." She gave the melee in question an appraising look as she folded her arms, tucking her arms in her wide sleeves as she did so.

"Do you want the honors, or shall I?" said Suki with a smirk.

"My way's faster and has fewer annoying after-effects." Her arms shot out at lightning speed; four throwing daggers flying from each hand, each landing directly next to a foot of one of the benders. The four froze and Jason had to work hard to not echo the gulp he heard from Piper. "We're tired and going to bed." she stated simply.

Twenty seconds of cleanup, a few orders to crewmen, and a groggy moving of Percy and Annabeth later, the demigods found themselves in a surprisingly well-appointed barracks. Leo initially insisted on staying awake due to his concussion, but a brief round of healing-water later, he joined most of the other demigods in sleep within a few minutes. Jason stared at the ceiling as he drifted off, feeling much better about the situation that they'd found themselves in than he had a few hours ago, and hoping that nothing terrible was happening in their absence.

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**A/N: That should be the end of the massive exposition-intro. I did listen and had some bending thrown in here. I'm not completely confident in my ability to verbally describe bending, hopefully I'll get better at it as I go. **

**Review Response time!**

**Blinded in a Bolthole: Gotta say, the day you zipped through my first chapters and blew my phone up with e-mail alerts was a nice one. Glad you liked it. As to the actual story...yeah, I've got several ideas, but nothing set in stone yet.**

**I can see you: I know this is what you were going for, but you're signoff is a bit creepy...**

**Random unnamed guest guy: Annabeth hasn't had a shower in a month. Have you ever seen someone with long blonde hair who hasn't washed it in a while? As a blonde myself, I can attest to the fact that it get's a lot dingier when it's dirty. This would also be why they didn't notice either her nor Percy's gray streak, even though in the books it's largely faded by now.**

**Verbose guest reviewer: I hope this assuaged your fears about bending balance, along with the surprise factor. Really, the benders were more surprised at the concept of "gods" and the fact that neither Percy nor Leo were affected by their elements at all. Here's a bit better of a reaction to the more practical side of bending.**

**fluddershy: I actually had cookies today, believe it or not...**

**Band of Thieves: heh...yeah, sorry again for the lateness...sigh**

**HPPJOandHG4ever: Heh...heh...um...I wish the plot was thought out...at least the setting is. And I do try with the characters.**

**Juli Beawr and GreenAwesomeness: Glad you liked that joke. It looks like the ones I don't have to force work well...understandably. Hopefully this helps with the longer chapter issue, too =P.**

**Sachmis: Yeah, I see what you mean, but the demigods do have a way to relate the concept of an Avatar. The gods have been known to appear as an Avatar of themselves. Plus...these particular demigods have been a bit too busy to go watching any new movies.**

**Azulabeifong: Um...do I really want to know why you're high? Hopefully nothing illegal.**

**Everyone else: thanks for reading and reviewing, now ya just have to do it again =P.**

**Review! Me likes!**

**Tzapporah signing off!**

***Pre-next chapter review response. Erika, you reviewed as a guest, so I couldn't respond directly. Aang does spar plenty, as do all xiaolin monks; it's part of their training. He's supposed to be the defender of the balance of the world, and you don't get that by just doing forms. They showed sparring plenty of times in the show. The use of the word "brawl" was primarily to entice Toph out of her fuming sulk. The idea was to try and forestall a massively violent attack from her on one of the demigods, namely Percy. I don't know about you, but if I had a powerful geokinetic friend and she was mad enough to make the 200-ton slab of rock 300 yards away rumble, I'd want to deflect her quickly.**

**This will be re-said in the responses with next chapter, but I'm not completely sure how long that'll be, and I wanted to get this out there to help forestall a some confusion.**


	12. Chapter XI (Nico POV)

**A/N: ZOMG! Another chapter just a few days later? UNPOSSIBLE! I wasn't originally planning on including a chapter like this, but with the way the last chapter kinda naturally ended, I felt it was needed. This one's a little short, but I still hope you like it.**

**Also, fair warning, some foul language in this chapter...although most of it is in Italian.**

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NICO

The skinny body slammed into the crumbling pillar.

"WHAT THE _CAZZO_ WAS THAT?" *SLAM* "WHAT DID YOU _DO?_" *SLAM* "WHERE DID YOU SEND THEM?" *SLAM*

The surrounding demigods were at a loss of how to handle the enraged Son of Hades. He was surrounded by dancing solid shadows, two of which were slamming the barely-conscious Octavian against various pieces of ancient stonework. A few of the braver observers were dodging shadows to try to reach and calm down the furious teen, but none of their hearts were really in it….it was Octavian, after all.

"Y'know…" a drawling voice cut through the mayhem causing the surrounding demigods to turn and drop into defensive crouches. Even Nico paused in his punishment of Octavian, to turn his glare on the newcomer. "In my experience, head trauma rarely leads to coherent, much less truthful, answers." Apollo grinned wryly at the Son of Hades from his lounging perch atop one of the more intact pillars. "On principle, I object to such treatment of one of my descendants…but even _I'm_ having hard time putting much effort into defending that little prick."

Nico's eyes narrowed, "Oh? So what do you propose I do?" His voice was calm and reasonable, as if he were simply discussing the weather; a disturbing contrast to the bellowing from a moment before. The limply-dangling Octavian only added to the eye-of-the-storm feel of the moment.

Apollo gave him a measured look that reminded Nico that the god was more than the hot-rod-sun-chariot driving, iPod-listening, terrible-haiku reciting flake he'd seemed when they'd first met. This was one of the main twelve Olympian gods; one who'd proven his serious and ruthless side many times over in battles. This was not a god to be trifled with, no matter how furious Nico was at his descendant. Apollo seemed to sense Nico's progress in leashing, or at least channeling, his fury. "Good. Now, you're a clever boy. How do _you_ think _you_ could find out what you want to know?"

"Until this one regains consciousness?" He emphasized his query with a rough shake of the boy in question. "Do _you_ know where he sent them?"

"No, but how do you know he sent them anywhere? It sure looked like the ground sucked them up. How do you know they're not dead and buried?"

Nico waved a dismissive hand, his ire now channeled to kick his brain into overdrive to solve the problem at hand. "Nah, I would've sensed if they were dead. He sent them somewhere, whether it was into a cave down with Gaea or wherever, they're still alive…hmm…"

"That looked like some kind of spell—" Piped up Connor Stoll. "—maybe we can ask Lou Ellen about it." Finished his brother, Travis. A new recruit from the Hermes cabin rushed off to find the Hecate counselor at Nico's agreeing nod.

"Ordinarily I would suggest an augury, but considering our augur is currently out of commission…" contributed Reyna, looking thoughtfully at the dangling Octavian. She then squared her shoulders and turned to address the nearby Roman demigods, "Speaking of which, he needs to be dealt with. He is Centurion of the First Cohort and has committed treason against at least two Praetors. It is a Roman crime and he must face Roman Justice."

Nico glared dangerously at the lone Praetor of the Twelfth Legion. "What exactly are you saying?"

She looked him directly and the eye and declared. "I am saying that he should be remanded into the custody of the Twelfth Legion. The Third Cohort will…handle…him until he is tried." She lowered her voice so that only the nearest demigods, including Nico, could hear and smiled wolfishly. "Fear not, Roman Justice is not kind and does not suffer traitors and cowards well. You can have whatever's left of him afterwards."

Nico was partially mollified by this, but was still eyeing her distrustfully, at least until the Centurion of the Third Cohort approached. "DiAngelo, we were never truly formally introduced. Do you know who my godly parent is?" Nico's eyes flicked to the burly boy's tattoo, which depicted a crossed spear and cornucopia above his five service stripes. "I am James, son of Honos, God of Honor." Nico met the boy's hard and uncompromising eyes as he continued in an undertone, "I think you can imagine how I feel about dishonorable cowards."

"And you have to admit," Reyna put in in the same undertone, "Handing him over would be a massive Greek/Roman good faith gesture. We're all here together from your unification efforts, anyway."

Nico nodded slowly as he processed their words and willed the shadows to lower Octavian into the waiting hands of a few of the Third Cohort legionnaires. "Fair enough, we have more important things to do anyway. Will you let me know when he's coherent again? I'd at least like to witness the interrogation."

After a long measuring look at Nico and a small approving nod from his Praetor, James said, "That could be arranged, but I ask that you keep your temper in check. He will still be in my custody."

"I can accept that, now let's figure out what the—I'll use our resident God's term for him—little prick did."

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**A/N: Yep, F*ck you, Octavian, not even your godly ancestor likes you. Hope this clears up a little bit of what/how the main 7 got to our world in the first place and a bit of what happened to get the two demigod camps to the Doors of Death for it to have happened. Yes, this was intentionally short. Think of it as a bit of an interlude. **

**Also, now that I've done this one, I think I might do others every once in a while to see what's going on back in our world, but not too often.**

**Review Responses!**

**Erika: Aang does spar. He's not a pacifist; he's a Xiaolin monk. There's a big difference between pacifism and respecting life. You can't be an excellent martial artist without sparring. The use of the word "brawl" was purely for Toph's benefit. The two were trying to get her focused on something other than making the 200-ton slab of rock 300 yards away slam through parts of the ship and into Percy. **

**Allan: Part of how I've constructed this in my head is that our main seven are beyond the reach of the gods. Hell, if Alaska was a no-god's-land, I think that the Avatarverse would be well beyond it. With this interlude, though, I did manage to get Apollo in there. Hope you appreciated that. Was debating whether it be him or Mars...I think he made it more obvious how _noone_ likes Octavian.**

**pegg2345: That's the plan. Really the things that slow me down are writer's block and lack of time. My hours are pretty sucky.**

**Young Heroes: Patience. It will come. =D.**

**kingdommast: I fixed the Justin/Jason typo now as well as the five vs. three for the Isle. I have no idea why I had a King Arthur moment there with five and three...nor why I accidentally typed Justin. Anyway, fixed now =D. Glad you're liking the story.**

**Gigabyte2598: Mmm...maybe. It'd take some finagling for it to happen in my headcanon, could be interesting, though.**

**Band of Thieves: GET OUT OF MY HEAD! =P Seriously, I've been trying to think of a good scenario for that or something similar.**

**rosalinda pink: I repeat what I just said to Band of Thieves above...**

**favfan: Um...easy on the capslock, buddy. But yes, I've already said that the demigods are technically more powerful than the benders, but not necessarily as versatile. I tried to hilight this in the last chapter with Jason's observations about their skills. None of the demigods, with the possible exception of Leo, have really ever thought of their elemental controls as a primary weapon. Yes, many of the demigods' powers span multiple Avatarverse elements (yes, you're correct in your remembrance that Percy's fire-resistant). For instance, Percy's got complete water control, but only marginal earth control (just earthquakes/eruptions from earthquakes), and specialized air control (just the mini-hurricanes he makes around himself while fighting). Jason's got complete air control, and specialized lightning (he still needs a metal/lightning rod focus to call it). Hazel, so far, only has complete control over precious metals/gems and some ability with tunnels. Leo's got all that fire control and proof-ness going for him, but he'd still get his ass kicked by a firebender from the hand-to-hand aspect of it. Ok...that response was a lot lengthier than planned...leaving it there.**

**Brackenfern: Distracted, but never forgotten...not for a long while, at least. And yes, you just need some patience.**

**Iheartpercyjackson353: Heh, yep. And both my parents are dark brunette, ain't recessive genes fun? Glad you enjoyed that chapter.**

**PADalbon: thanks! It might soudn cheezy, but it's reviews like that that gave me the confidence to get beyond chapter 2 of this fic. =D**

**To all the others: Glad you enjoyed it, hope you guys like this little chapter, too.**

**Moar REVEIWS! NOMNOMNOM!**

**Tzapporah signing off!**

**shalalala...Idon'tfeellikecountingallofthem: Workin' on it!**


	13. Chapter XII (Annabeth POV)

**A/N: God, work's been murder lately. I really do apologize for the long update time, but I promised myself that I'd update on my Birthday and I did =D. Now just need to get a few other fics while I'm at it. By the way, we're about to get into some of the meat of the story...hopefully my battle-narration ends up being up to scratch.**

******Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own nothing in here, god I wish I did. Even the seemingly-OC in this chapter is from my friend Evilnor. **

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Annabeth

Annabeth woke slowly from a long and mercifully-dreamless sleep. It felt like centuries since she'd been able to truly sleep, and the plain military-style bunk felt like a plush four-poster compared to the hellish places she and Percy had had available over the past month. She lay silently in the bed for a long moment, mulling over the events of the last—was it really only a day, or had she slept much longer than that? Speaking of the last month, she was rather surprised, and more than a little concerned, that she'd fallen asleep so easily and deeply. In Tartarus, sleep had been a rare luxury, survival dictating quick naps rarely lasting more than two hours-two small hours in a never-ending torment of chaos. She almost had to thank Hera for putting Percy through what she did to get to Camp Jupiter; the entire ordeal had certainly sharpened his survival instincts to a razor-edge. Hers had been honed over the last month as well, but she was unsure they'd have been able to survive if _both_ of them had had to develop those from scratch.

No matter the timing, she'd learned to trust those instincts, and Percy's even more, which was exactly why the fact that she and Percy had dropped off so easily was so disturbing to the analytical side of her mind. Despite a raging "sparring match" with flying debris not twenty feet from her face, she'd felt safe and secure enough to drift into a fairly deep sleep. She hadn't even fully woken up when they'd relocated to the barracks room they were in now—just letting Percy guide her into a bed before everything faded to black, and even now the feeling of security was intact. _What could cause that?_ her inner-Athenian tactician asked, poking and prodding that feeling for any evidence of outside influence. _Was I drugged? I don't think so; neither of us ate or drank anything and those always seem to have some mind-muddying side-effects, and I don't feel dulled. A spell, maybe? Those usually have some residual feel, and it's usually the instinctive side that saves Percy or me from those and not the other way around._ In the end, the daughter of Athena decided that it would be best to follow her instincts, but allow the analytical side to take in and process _everything_ just in case.

She turned her full attention to her surroundings, and heard no other sounds around her other than the faint, rhythmic creaking of the ship. _I guess that means I'm the last one up. _A scan around as she stretched confirmed her suspicions; she was quite alone in the room. The only thing betraying that there'd _ever_ been anyone else were the three cots in various states of disarray. _Wait—three? Where are the other—oh, I guess the Legion got them in the habit of making their bunks, _her mouth quirked up in a small smile, _Maybe Percy should've stayed with them a little longer._ Her smile grew as she noticed a piece of—parchment?—hanging from the foot of the unmade cot directly across from her. "SOHRESW" was written in big block-letters along the top with an arrow to the left underneath, and underneath that a sketch of a stick-figure underneath a cone of dotted lines. Bless Percy, he knew _exactly_ what she wanted, and the garbling caused by the double-dyslexia helped serve as a point of amusement.

Twenty minutes later, a clean and refreshed Annabeth clad in a surprisingly-comfortable set of black and dark red clothes that had been left out for her. The sun was fairly high in the sky—indicating either late-morning or early-afternoon. Percy and Jason were sparring—swords only—on the now-pristine surface of the stone slab that had been the venue for the chaos the previous night, the Indian-looking boy—Sokka, if memory served—watching with rapt attention.

"_There_ she is!" came Piper's voice from the immediate right, "It's about time you decided to join us, Sleepyhead!" Turning, Annabeth saw the owner of the voice sitting at a small table with two other young women. They were only vaguely familiar…maybe she'd seen them as she'd been heading to bed last night?

"Morning, Piper, Katara—or is it afternoon?" She responded with a friendly smile, moving to take the empty seat.

"Ha! Don't worry, Goldie, it's still morning. You weren't out of it _that_ long, although I'm glad you seem to have found the showers," a semi-mocking half-smile twisting the daughter of Aphrodite's mouth, "It was almost hard to get to sleep last night with the funk of you two—they may need to ask Jason to help air the place out."

"I thought that you'd have learned that mouth of yours just gets you into trouble." Annabeth shot back, leveling an annoyed glare at the girl. "Are you going to keep digging, or are you going to introduce me." She asked, gesturing towards the two unfamiliar women.

"Ah," piped up one of the new faces, "I think I can take care of that. I'm Suki, and this is Mai," she said happily, pointing towards the bored-looking girl in dark clothing and elaborately-coiffed black hair.

"I take it you're the two that Sokka and Zuko rushed off to pick up? Let me guess, Zuko with Mai and Sokka with Suki?"

"Yup," said Suki with a grin, "got it in one."

"So," Annabeth said, deciding just how to phrase what she wanted to know, "I can't help but notice the return of some of our…armaments." She shot a pointed glance at _Katoptris_ on Piper's belt, followed by a quick glance to Piper, herself. She had her own suspicions as to how these people had been convinced to rearm the demigods.

"Don't look at me," said Piper, "I had nothing to do with it. As far as I know it was Frank and Hazel's doing."

Annabeth's eyebrows were doing their best to disappear into her bangs. "What? How?"

Mai shrugged, "They made a completely logical argument, and besides, it's not as if the rest of us aren't perfectly capable of defending ourselves."

"What kind of argument?" Annabeth asked incredulously.

Mai only shrugged again, "Ask them, I don't feel like repeating it."

"Right…" said Annabeth somewhat uncertainly, "speaking of which, where is the rest of the party?"

"Well," said Suki, "Zuko and Aang went back to continue the political negotiations they were in the middle of when you guys arrived. Toph dragged the big guy and the dark girl along to show them around Omashu—something about wanting to show the girl the 'awesome stuff Earthbending can do'. That Leo kid is down in the engine room, happier than Momo in a cave crawler nest, and Katara's…um…in her cabin. She's not feeling very well at the moment."

"I see." The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. "So…do I get my knife back in this whole re-armament thing?"

"Was wondering when you were going to ask," said Mai, withdrawing the familiar gleam of Annabeth's dagger from the depths of one of her wide sleeves, "Here you go."

For a moment, Annabeth thought the girl was shrugging again, but the shrug seemed to take on a life of its own that riveted the daughter of Athena's attention. Both demigods jerked back in surprise when a small red snout poked out from underneath the girl's collar.

Suki laughed, but Mai pretended to ignore her reaction and turned her attention to the small serpentine body emerging from under her clothing. "Finally decided to wake up, Fang? Good, you can get out of there and meet the newcomers." The creature, which seemed to be a tiny, bearded version of a _drakon_, blinked blearily at Mai before turning to the two demigods and letting out an absolutely adorable squeak of greeting.

"W-w-what," stammered out Piper, "is _that_?"

"Fang's a dragon," said Suki. "I know, I know. They're supposed to be extinct; Zuko's uncle supposedly killed the last dragon blah, blah, blah," she continued, misinterpreting the reason for the incredulous expressions, "Yeah…that story's not exactly true. I don't know all the details, but I know that at some point Zuko and Aang went somewhere and apparently met the Ancient Sun Warriors, who'd been living in secret for centuries. It wasn't until Zuko's coronation that anyone else knew they still existed, when one showed up and presented the new Firelord with a dragon egg. Fang hatched a few days later."

"How old is he?" asked Piper, "How big will he get when he's grown?"

"A little less than a month," responded Mai, her tone clearly conveying that a fair chunk of the responsibility for caring for the infant creature had fallen on her shoulders, "but from what I've heard, he should grow big enough to carry a half-dozen people comfortably."

"About a hundred years ago, the riding of dragons by some of the more prestigious members of the Fire Nation was rather commonpl—" Annabeth stuck her hand out to interrupt Suki's admittedly interesting history lesson.

"Hey! What's up water boy?" Sokka's voice carried across the deck in the sudden absence of clashing Celestial Bronze. Percy was standing stock-still, free hand palm-out towards Jason and eyes scanning his surroundings.

What was wrong? What was it? Annabeth's brain kicked into overdrive trying to identify what had triggered her fight-or-flight response—THERE! The water lapping against the side of the ship had changed its rhythm.

"BELOW!" Yelled Percy a half second before a score of people jumped out of the ocean on either side of the ship to land on the deck, all poised for a fight.

"Friends of yours?" asked Annabeth, gripping her knife.

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**A/N: ****Aaand, there we go. Next chapter will either be the battle on the ship or some events with Toph, Frank, and Hazel in Omashu...depends which one ends up lending itself to being written more easily. Little bit of real-life good news. I should be able to update more often during the summer (oh the fun of being a teacher), so I hopefully won't be leaving you guys hanging for such an extended period again.**

**Anyway, on to the review responses!**

**Darksword13: While it is true that the Fire Nation ships are metal, there is a difference between a metal deck and a metal hull. Zuko's ship here is truly massive, and saving weight (especially when you have a huge-ass chunk of rock in the middle of it) would be a good plan. Plus, the ship isn't just supposed to be a warship, I've modeled it more like the Royal Barge that Azula came to get Zuko in from the beginning of the second season. So, basically, everything structural and the hull are all metal, but the deck surface and many of the luxury-points of the vessel are treated wood.**

**fluddershy: Yeah...I kinda actually already addressed that in the comments on a previous chapter. I'm keeping all of the original-canon couples (Percy/Annabeth, Jason/Piper, Frank/Hazel, Sokka/Suki, Zuko/Mai, Aang/Katara) and I'd kinda like to see if I can do a Toph/Leo, but I'll have to see how well I'm able to develop it. One thing I refuse to be is heavy-handed.**

**Mona Lisa: I think I answered your final question in my response to fluddershy. As for the others...yeah, writing mad Nico was actually pretty fun to write. Um...I'm pretty sure Percy's healing ability only affects him, I don't remember anything from the books that indicated otherwise...and the camp half-blood wiki seems to agree with me. As far as who's the most powerful...I'm going to try to avoid any Mary Sue characters, so everyone who should be powerful will be, but some situations are more conducive to one person's abilities than the others. I want everyone to have their time to shine.**

**Random guest person: I think you missed the whole "Percy asked for a map to show Annabeth" thing. He knew his latitude/longitude in relation to the Avatar world, but he could also sense that the landmasses weren't right for where that would be on Earth, hence his disorientation.**

**Little Chibi: Yeah, I started writing this before I read the Death God Alliance fic and Nico really started to grow on me. I'm thinking I might find a way to get him there, but it'll be a while yet...and isn't my cast big enough? =(**

**lolly1010: Glad you like it, hopefully this helped assuage your fears.**

**UponACrowsWing: Yeah...I really do dislike Octavian...really glad that Nico gave me a conduit to beat his little ass.**

**SpawnofAnarian: Thanks, I'm really trying to stay true to the characters' core. Hell, it was even my question at a character development panel at A-Kon of how to develop a character I didn't create myself while still staying true to its original. Hopefully I can continue. My descriptive abilities will soon be put to the test as I try to describe fight scenes...wish me luck.**

**rosalindapink: Refer to the response to UponACrowsWing above, and as an addendum...Nico is the son of Hades...do you really think that even _dying_ is going to save Octavian from his wrath? *evil grin***

**trivia101: Glad to hear it, hopefully I can keep my hold.**

**Juli Beawr: Three? Who'm I missing that's back in the PJOverse? By my count, the only two living big three kids left are Nico and Thalia...As far as Nico getting to the Avatarverse, refer to the responses to UponACrowsWing and rosalindapink. And yes, PLOT IS COMING! I've even largely figured out my villains and their motives.**

**CA15: Hope you're not disappointed**

**Eve-Kataanger: shh, shh...she had a head injury and she's massively exhausted, plus most gliders she'd be used to seeing would have a much larger wingspan and a triangle-frame below for the rider. Aang's glider is rather unique.**

**Iheartpercyjackson353: Yep, both sisters, and some of the few living, non-godly people who truly treated him like a _person_ and didn't avoid him due to his parentage.**

**The Band of Thieves: Last, but certainly not least. Yeah...the biggest problem I have in following that advice is that the only friend I have that does much _writing_ has only read the first of the PJO books, and so only knows about the other characters from my description. I will keep working, though =D, and be ready to see my engineering-training show through as both Leo shows his stuff and we learn more about the antagonists.**

**Tzapporah Signing off!**

**MOAR REVIEWS!**


	14. Chapter XIII (Toph POV)

**A/N: Well, that took a bit longer than I wanted it to, but I struggled a lot on just how I wanted to write this chapter. It was not an easy decision, but I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. Hopefully you guys do, too. But hey! Combat chapter!**

**Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own none of this. Really wish I did...hell, my only true OC's are the villains.**

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Toph

"This place is amazing! Just look at these buildings and architecture! Annabeth'd love this."

Toph smirked with satisfaction at the awe in Hazel's voice. While she wasn't one to really give much of a crap about the beauty of architecture, she did love that just about everything was made of stone. That, plus the fact that her favorite brawling partner was the King made Omashu by far her favorite Earth Kingdom city.

"Yeah, talk about a great combination of form and function. The Legion's engineers could learn a thing or two from these people." Snorted Frank. "Romans might be good at rapid-built fortifications, but creature comforts have never been a priority. This place was designed with an incredible tactical advantage while _still_ being a place you'd _want_ to live. You said that it was actually conquered for a while by the Fire Nation, though…how'd they manage it?"

Toph could sense his rising excitement as he spoke; his respiration and pulse increasing and his voice pitch rising ever-so-slightly. She idly wondered if he had what she heard others describe as a "gleam in his eye." She'd never quite understood that term, but she'd come to associate it with Sokka on one of his inventive kicks. She smiled a little to herself at the comparison, but shrugged in answer. "Dunno for sure; didn't really care. Something about extendable metal bridges and King Bumi surrendering immediately."

"What?" said Hazel incredulously, "He immediately surrendered such an incredibly defensible position? Why in the name of the Gods would he do that?"

Toph grinned back at her, "'Cause he was a crafty old bastard who cared about his people, that's why."

As Hazel sputtered, Frank began to chuckle. "Let me guess…not a drop of blood spilled?" When Toph nodded in answer, he continued. "He waited until the exact right time when he had the advantage to retake the city with a minimum amount of bloodshed, didn't he? Hehe, crafty old bastard, indeed."

"What's that phrase about old age and treachery—?" asked Hazel, slyly.

"—always beats youth and skill." Finished Frank.

"Hah!" Toph barked out, "Never heard that one before, but Bumi's only missing the 'youth' bit of those four. He's pretty damn powerful; he's the only Earthbender I've met who can hold his own against _me_."

"Really? I had no idea you were that powerful—hey hey!" He cut himself off in response to her annoyed shift in stance, "Don't get me wrong, it was pretty damn cool to watch you spar with the others last night, but it's not like we have anything for comparison when it comes to your 'bendings.'"

She'd be lying if she said she wasn't a bit mollified by his honest reply, but she felt a demonstration was in order, and luckily they'd come to a place in the city just perfect for it. "Hn, then let me educate you a bit in the art of Earthbending. Omashu was founded by the first human Earthbenders, and since that time, not one single Earthbender has ever been able to bend metal." She exchanged waves with the city construction workers assigned to removing the remnants of the Fire Nation "modifications" to the city. She knelt down and rapped her knuckles on the slab of iron pavement in front of her before turning a semi-manic grin back on the pair of tourists. "Until me, that is." She reached out with both hands and _pulled_, causing the surrounding metal to crumple into her hands, and then _lifted_ the slab of iron and threw it into the stone garbage skiff placed exactly for that purpose fifty feet away.

She repeated the process with the four additional slabs before stopping for a break and returning to her stunned and sputtering guests. "But…but…those must've weighed more than a ton each! And you're saying you did that all with your 'bending?'" Hazel said with amazement and perhaps a bit of hope in her voice.

"Well, yeah…not like I could've done that with my muscles." Toph said, thinking it had been a bit of a stupid question. "But, since I'm the only one in the world who can do it, I lend a hand in the post Fire Nation Occupation cleanup when I'm in town. It's not the most fun use of my abilities, but at least I'm on solid Earth for the day rather than a ship in the middle of the ocean."

The girl snorted, following Toph away from the construction site. "Heh, I can definitely agree with that one. I hate boats. Was that all they had for you?"

Toph was liking this girl more and more. "Yeah, I was here a good chunk of yesterday before we had to head back to the ship in a hurry." She sensed the wince and guilty increase in heart rate that her casual comment brought in the pair. "Eh, don't worry about it. You guys are all right, and you sure helped stave off the boredom."

"You sure you're blind?" Asked Frank, a shrewd edge to his voice. "Daredevil's the only one I've ever heard of—," he broke off suddenly, his body suddenly tense, "Hazel. I'm getting that feeling."

Hazel, too had tensed and her hand had moved to the hilt of the sword at her belt, "Yeah, me too."

Toph was more than a little confused; what had these two picked up on? "What're you two—hey!" Frank had pulled her to the side, causing a rock to narrowly miss her head before hitting the ground a few feet away. How the hell had that happened? _Nobody_ snuck up on her, especially not in this city of stone, and this time no fewer than a _dozen_ people had just done exactly that. She could sense them now, apparently whatever they'd done to mask their approach had ceased. She _had_ to figure out how they'd done that, but for now, it was time to FIGHT.

"Take cover!" she yelled at the two with her while lobbing boulders at four of their attackers. She had no idea of their fighting prowess and wanted to protect them from the flying boulders.

The two were not the best at taking directions. Hazel's sword was drawn and clashing with the weapons of one of their assailants before Toph could even finish her sentence. Frank's feet left the ground, launching him towards one of the walls. Toph's heart almost skipped a beat when she didn't hear him hit or land, instead what sounded like a giant cat hit the wall where the boy should have, and then launched itself powerfully between the two buildings until it landed on one of the men on the roof with a feral growl.

"Hazel, what the hell is that thing?" Toph yelled at the only person in the vicinity who might be able to answer her question while deflecting three and sidestepping another boulder flying in her direction.

"A panther, don't worry, he's on our side." She responded, grunting with the effort of staving off a pair of hammers. Then as an afterthought, she added. "Please try not to hit him."

Even in the heat of battle, Toph could tell the girl was telling the truth, and not the kind to look a gift horse in the mouth—another phrase she didn't quite get—continued in her onslaught.

Several minutes of heated battle later, and their position had not improved. The giant cat-thing was keeping the rooftop attackers busy, but a Firebender had joined the fight and was making things interesting. Hazel had ducked behind one of the barriers Toph had erected to catch her breath, three men she'd been fighting lying on the ground unconscious from her swordplay.

A sudden roar and a series of *THUNK*s preceded the cat-thing jumping down to land next to the girl. Toph stumbled slightly in surprise as the cat was instantly replaced with the missing Frank. She was so surprised she nearly missed the words he whispered in Hazel's ear immediately afterwards.

"Think you can find us a tunnel to the castle?"

"What? Why? Maybe, but what good would that do? These guys can manipulate the ground a lot better than I can."

"Just trying to think of a way we can avoid _shedding light_ on the subject."

"Gotcha. Just make sure Mr. Human Torch up there doesn't follow us in."

"Yes ma'am!" He disappeared again, this time seemingly replaced with nothing. A rustle of feathers and strange warbling cry, not completely unlike a chicken-pig, greeted her ears seconds later. _Yeah, they definitely didn't tell us everything._

"Toph!" called Hazel in a stage-whisper, "Toph! Can you hear me?"

"Kinda hard not to." Replied Toph irritably, redirecting another boulder at one of their attackers. "I heard the whole thing. Don't quite get it, but anything's better than what we've got now. What do you need me to do?"

"Just keep them busy and follow me in." The girl replied confidently.

Toph felt a subtle shift in the earth below her feet; a tunnel was smoothly forming in the direction of the castle, and unlike the sewer system already present, this one was devoid of fluids flowing through it. _How is she doing that? It doesn't feel like Earthbending, she's not even moving!_

"Got one!" Yelled Hazel, "Think you could pop a piece of the pavement off right here?" she asked the young Earthbender.

Toph didn't dignify that question with a response as a slight flick of her wrist split a square hole right where Hazel was indicating.

"Thanks." She said before yelling, "Frank, it's go-time!"

A screech rent the air before something very LARGE crashed into the top of the building where the attacking Firebender had been standing. As soon as the impact was over, the thing disappeared and Hazel moved aside as something _whoosh_ed past her into the hole.

"C'mon Toph!" She yelled at the young Earthbender.

Toph sprinted the ten feet to the opening, crouching next to the taller girl. "You first, I'll close it after us."

Hazel only hesitated a half-second before nodding and jumping in, Toph following immediately after and closing the entrance behind them.

"So…we're now underground. Think you can tell me _why_ now?" Toph said irritably.

"Well," said Hazel, who now had some sort of bird sitting on her shoulder, "do you think any of _them_ can see in pitch darkness?"

Toph snorted, "No, and neither can you…wait, you can't can you?"

"One of the perks of my heritage," the girl replied wryly, "and Frank…well, he has ways of getting around that."

"O…k…sure, cool, and Frank is….?"

"Right here, on my shoulder. Um…" she said, suddenly uncertain. "It's a long story, and I promise we'll share it with you later, but for now let's get to the castle. That felt way too much like an arm of a coordinated attack, and in my experience, it's best to regroup after being on the receiving end of one of those. Let's hope the others fared as well as we did."

The three progressed through the tunnel that Toph could sense Hazel was forming ahead and—for lack of a better term—erasing behind them on the way to the castle. Toph couldn't believe how incredibly smooth this girl's bending was. She had a dozen questions, but filed them away for later. Now it was far more important to make sure they reached their destination without getting ambushed again, so she focused all of her attention on the vibrations of the Earth to sense any incoming attack. Whatever these guys had done to mask their approach before, she wasn't about to let it work again.

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**A/N: Yes yes! Action and some clues as to the nature of the enemy. Mwahaha! Yeah, I'd been really nervous about writing a chapter from Toph's POV, but when I thought more and more about it, I couldn't think of a better way to present this chapter.**

**I'm also a bit curious to see if people can figure out what things Frank changed into during the fight.**

**Anyway, Review responses!**

**Brackenfern, Binglebop, Eve-Kataanger: thanks for the B-day wishes. **

**PADalbon: um...not quite sure what to make of your review...only so much I can interpret from a smiley...**

**The Band of Thieves: Thanks, I might just take you up on that some day...I just tend to have a little patience problem when I finish writing things... Oh, and nothing wrong with long reviews =P.**

**Gigabyte2598: Um...well, it was sooner than last time...um...I'll be honest that it really depends on what I can think of at the time...I'll try...**

**SpawnofAnarion: Hehe, well, hopefully it continues to live up to the "interesting" bit. **

**Tasolae: You have no idea how much I struggle to make sure they stay in character, although I think the greater danger from me is for one to fall into the background rather than getting all Mary-sue. Anyway, the Doctor taught us that anyone who gets all "I am all powerful!" deserves a lesson in humility.**

**Eve-Kataanger: Yeah, I did actually partially address that in a following chapter. And here's both a fight and Toph, Frank, and Hazel!**

**gisecullen: Glad you enjoy it. I kind of like Annabeth as well. She's not my favorite, but she was definitely the best for the POV on that chapter.**

**Jazzy: Thanks, I do try to keep the characters correct. I hope you like the stuff that comes next. I truly hope that you guys find the villains as epic as I do =P.**

**intheMADNESS: hehe, I'll try to not make you wait too long at a time =/.**

**Rainosa: Thanks! I totally agree with you that those are my criteria for a fic I want to read. Hell, when searching, one of the filters I use is 10k words. Um...I'll be the first to admit that I didn't originally think of this as being an extremely long fic...just the fulfillment of a silly little scene I'd had in my head for a while. (a scene that happened back in Chapter IV) So to say it took on a life of its own...yeah...understatement.**

**Random Guest: Yep, that did get addressed later.**

**The Icechild: Well...here's an update, hope you enjoy.**

**fluddershy: That is the plan, although we'll see how those scenes take develop as I write 'em.**

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**That's it for now. Please review!**

**Tzapporah signing off!**


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